Flames
by armin44
Summary: A small mistake in hand-seals led to Naruto becoming Shinigami's vessel. But what will it change in Naruto's life? How will others react to it and what effect will it have on the prophecy? Not even Naruto himself knows the answer to it.
1. Chapter 1

A small mistake in hand-seals led to Naruto becoming Shinigami's vessel. But what will it change in Naruto's life? How will others react to it and what effect will it have on the prophecy? Not even Naruto himself knows the answer to it.

Disclaimer: All rights belong to Kishimoto - yeah, that guy that created an amazing story and some pretty cool and believable characters but then decided that leaving a whole clan's genocide unresolved and creating some cheesy-ass & unbelievable ending is a good way to go around. I mean, I'm still gonna buy the rest of the _Naruto _volumes so it's like whatever. [Purely platonic SasuNaruSaku cos I freaking love team 7 and _the ending was supposed to be about friendship and reaching goals, not romance_]

Oh, and before you begin reading: I don't like Hinata. As in, I used to like her in Part 1, but a little bit into Part 2 and I just couldn't stand her guts. Thus, if I _do _include Hinata in the future, expect her to be OOC whereby she sees Naruto as her inspiration and, instead of stalking on him, etc., etc., she trains with her cousin and aims to become a great shinobi and a future head of her clan. Yep, these small (or big?) changes would make me love Hinata in no time, but Kishi ruined all of this potential. Ah well. Then again, Hinata's character wasn't the only thing that he ruined.

xxxx

Chapter One

Sarutobi got there just as Minato was finishing the formation of seals. Hiruzen himself knew those seals better than anyone, for he was the one who taught them to Jiraiya and the latter one taught them to his student, but it seemed like Minato was the last one in this line: Sandaime knew that Shinigami won't allow him to live after this, and looking at the state Kushina was in, they were going to die together.

Hiruzen hurried towards them, telling his back-up team to stay back. The demon chakra was out of control and it looked like it kept hitting and crushing everything around it, but the Third Hokage avoided every single slash: he didn't become a Hokage for no reason, after all! The waves that these hits caused, however, were strong enough to make his fill rather dizzy and even shudder a few times as he was coming closer to Minato and Kushina; it was clear that the Nine-Tails was feeling that it was nearing its end and didn't pay attention to the surroundings. Now would be a perfect time to perform an attack from behind, but there was little to be done about this beast, and Minato was about to sacrifice himself to keep the village safe.

But then something happened; something that would later change shinobi's world and make Naruto Uzumaki someone very, very different from what the prophecy has had for him in store. Because as his father was about to form last two seals, he performed the wrong seals, which would later be blamed on stress and shock, and these two seals meant that the part of the Nine-Tails won't be sealed off inside Naruto. Sarutobi clearly saw the mistake that Namikaze did and the utter terror on his face. Was it the end? Did his small mistake result in Konoha's end?

Before Hiruzen had time to call out Minato's name and help him and his family to get somewhere safe, the Shinigami in front of them began shrinking. Sarutobi and the Namikaze could only look up at it in confusion: Minato didn't finish the seal correctly, but it was likely that Shinigami was still going to ask for the 'payment', in other words Minato's soul, so something was definitely wrong.

Along with Shinigami, the Nine-Tails began getting smaller and smaller, too, though it happened in a smoke of red and orange and it only took a few minutes for its Yin part to be sealed off inside Minato with the latter one violently coughing at the unexpected results. At least they managed to get rid of this half...

"Minato, I think it's working - the other half is getting sucked into the markings on Naruto's stomach!" shouted Kushina to her husband, for Kyuubi's chakra made it impossible for everyone to hear each other without shouting. She was, in fact, right: pretty much following the example of its Yin part, the Yang part began to shrink, but Kyuubi still had enough time to attack Naruto. Kushina followed her motherly instinct when she jumped forward, thus preventing him from killing the baby, but so did Minato. So the two of them stood, covered in blood and swear, and the Yang part was soon fully placed into Naruto with the markings on Naruto's stomach cooling down.

"Minato, Kushina, don't move - I will get help!" announced Hiruzen loudly and was just turning around when he saw it. Shinigami, who was steadily getting smaller for the last couple of seconds, didn't back out of his previous task and sliced his sword through Minato's soul like one would cut a slice of meat for dinner: mercilessly and quickly. It made Minato cough with blood even harder and he would have fallen down if it wasn't for Kushina: she helped them to lay down as gently as possible.

"Minato," she whispered with a sob but couldn't avert her eyes from the picture in front of her. "Hiruzen, get Naruto away from it!"

Her words were uttered too late. Little did she know that Minato accidentally sealed off the said Shinigami inside his son with those last two seals, and when the ground became to shake even harder and the moon was gone from the skies for a matter of a second, Shinigami was sucked right into that seal, along with the Yang part of the Nine-Tails. Minato and Kushina saw it all but were only able to utter their son's name before the blood loss was too great and their eyes closed - this time, for the last time.

Hiruzen stood there for a few seconds, gears in his heard working full-on but not quickly enough to figure out what has just occurred and what to do with the baby. He could faintly hear people talking a few meters behind him - probably the squad that kept his back covered - but they weren't brave enough to approach him, and perhaps it was for the better. In fact, it would be much better to leave this scene as it is, because Sarutobi couldn't find it in himself to approach Kushina and Minato's lifeless bodies and take that poor baby away. No one yet knew what happened, only it seemed that Shinigami was placed inside the boy along with the Nine-Tails, for some unfathomable reason.

The silence didn't last for long because people seemed tired of waiting and Sarutobi could sense how Konoha was picking itself up: people were leaving their houses and began helping others by treating wounds and getting them to the only hospital in Konohagakure. The Nine-Tails was gone as quickly as it appeared, though the remains of his chakra were still dancing on what remained from the big forest near Konoha's outskirts. He will have to call up Danzo and ANBU to get rid of this chakra before it hurt too many people, Sarutobi thought to himself solemnly and finally began walking towards the baby.

The baby was smaller - far smaller than he remembered his own son, Asuma and consequently Konohamaru to be. The markings on his stomach, now completely cold, looked like some religious tattoos that his own father and grandfather would get back in the days, when God was looked up to and everything was done, according to religion. There was just something that felt rather off about 'Naruto' - that's what Kushina named him, right? He couldn't hold back a chuckle because he knew all too well where this name came from, and that it wasn't simply a type of ramen. He felt cruel about chuckling in a time and place like this - sickening, even - but he knew that the tears will come later. They always did.

When Sarutobi bent down to pick up Naruto and get him out of here, he saw a bit of grey in the roots of Naruto's blond hair. It was highly unusual because, as far as he knew, no one in Namikaze clan had grey hair, and neither did Uzumaki - not with their flaming red hair. He carefully stretched his arm and touched the grey roots with his fingertips and suddenly it began spreading on the rest of his hair. It kept spreading and spreading until all of Naruto's hair was grey like that of an old man and...

Were those _horns?_

Sandaime couldn't believe his eyes, so he picked him up and he even touched these horns with his fingers, but nothing happened. Again and again, but they felt and looked like horns that belong to goats or some other livestock, but slightly longer with a slight curve at the end. It took Sarutobi a few minutes to finally figure out what was wrong, and that's when Naruto decided to wake up and open his eyes.

And although his eyes were blue - much like Minato's, in fact - it didn't change the fact that the boy seemed to have _no chakra whatsoever_.

He couldn't believe it at first because every living thing emitted some sort of chakra and he would have felt even its faintest note, but there was none. It was like he was holding a black hole in his hands - or a dead body, to be more accurate, but the boy simply couldn't be dead because here he was, blinking and breathing like any ordinary baby. Was it because of the Nine-Tails and Shinigami? Did both of them actually enter his body?

Sarutobi put the baby down on the rock and performed a streak of simple hand seals - a simple jutsu that would allow him to talk to someone a few miles away.

'Hyuuga Hiashi, I need your help.'

'Sandaime-sama, of course! How can Hyuuga help you?'

'I need you to send here one of your finest men - I need to check something. I am at the spot where the Nine-Tails was raging just a few minutes ago, but I'm sure he will be able to find me regardless if I tell you or not.'

'Yes, I don't want you to doubt our abilities. Someone will arrive in a few minutes - it's simply too hard to find anyone in this mess.'

'I see. Are there many victims?'

'I cannot say for sure, but there are at least dozens of injured shinobi that are being brought to the hospital, regardless of whether they have pulse or not. I will report when everyone will be brought to the hospital and we will be able to see the damage.'

'Understood. Thank you for cooperation, Hiashi.'

'I was born to serve this village, Sarutobi-sama.'

Sarutobi put his hands down, thus dissolving the jutsu, and called up the squad that came along. "Satoshi, Hotaru, I trust you... with burying Minato and Kushina's bodies."

The two exchanged glances, though it wasn't clear whether they were surprised, sad or indifferent due to their faces being hidden by masks. But when they spoke up, Hotaru and Satoshi kept their voices professional. "Sandaime-sama, wouldn't that be impractical? We understand that those bodies belong to Hokage and his wife, but there are plenty more people who need our help out there."

The silence that took place after that said it all, and Satoshi nodded at Hotaru with the latter one bowing in front of Sarutobi. "Consider it done, Sandaime-sama. Would you prefer a closed coffin or..?"

He frowned and scratched his forehead because he didn't think there was a need to discuss this sort of thing and make arrangements. In fact, he never expected that his student's student would die right in front of his eyes, but destiny was a cruel thing and it liked throwing surprises at him whenever he felt like his life was at ease.

"A closed coffin. Show a little of respect to your Hokage," he said at last and dismissed them with a swift hand gesture. Without wasting any time, they approached Minato and Kushina. Satoshi coughed and muttered a soft apology, after which he quickly took off his cloak and put it over Kushina's body. He looked down at the body of the ex-Jinchuriki for a moment and then carefully picked her up, minding her long hair even though it no longer mattered if he was tugging too hard on it or not.

For Hotaru, the task was a bit different: picking up someone who was the head of the village, even if for a short time, and gave out your every single order was life-shattering. Unlike his partner, he only bent down to close Minato's eyes which made him look like he was sleeping. He then put his arms under his back and legs and lifted Minato Namikaze in the similar manner as he picked the lifeless bodies of his comrades so many times before.

Sarutobi watched the scene with a frown, his thoughts running at one thousand miles per hour. He instructed the rest of his squad to avoid touching Naruto because he had some suspicions regarding him on his own. If both Nine-Tails and Shinigami got sucked into his body, what on Earth was happening to him and his chakra? It wasn't some ordinary fluctuation or whatnot - that much Sarutobi knew - so there was a slim, but a possibility nevertheless that the Kyuubi and the Death God 'cancelled each other out' and the fact that they both existed in one body made the whole chakra production thing impossible.

He only waited for another ten or so minutes when he felt someone else's present - the rest of his squad already left with Kushina and Minato, so now it was only him standing over the baby who was unnaturally quiet. He knew who came even before turning around, "Good to see you, Hyuuga. I asked for the best and they sent you."

"And I'm glad I can serve you, Sandaime-sama," the younger man replied with a bow, and Sarutobi could only think of annoying it should get to always act respectfully towards someone who was no longer your Hokage, but still held some power over you. "What would you like me to do?"

"Check if this child over here has flows of chakra running through him and tell me if anything is wrong or different with its pathways inside boy's body," Hiruzen voiced his basic instructions and stepped back, watching Hyuuga do his job. In turn, he stepped closer and activated his eyes, looking down at Naruto and squinting in the process.

A few seconds passed and then the Hyuuga prodigy deactivated his bloodline ability and blinked, his eyes no longer deep in concentration. He looked at Hiruzen in pure confusion and shook his head, "I saw something, but it can't be true."

Sarutobi resisted rolling his eyes at those words - yeah, that boy was definitely no ordinary boy. "If you should know, this is Naruto Namikaze - who you will from now on refer to as Naruto Uzumaki to avoid unnecessary attention - and he is the reason that there is no longer a raging Nine-Tails in the process of destroying Konoha. This small human being is the vessel of the Kyuubi and will continue to be one until the day that he dies, so any weirdness and uncertainty can be applied to this child."

The member of the Hyuuga clan looked shocked, but he quickly overcame it and coughed a few times, clearing his throat and getting rid of the awkward atmosphere. "I see. Sandaime-sama, this child... he has no chakra. Instead of chakra pathways, there is a big black hole that makes my eyes burn every time I look at it and makes everything inside me turn cold. It's like... as if I was looking into Death's eyes without knowing."

Sarutobi hummed at the unusual description and looked down at Naruto. "A black hole? I understand that the seal has just been placed on him, but it's not possible that all traits of the Nine-Tails' chakra are gone for the time being. Are you sure you don't see any red or orange chakra remains?"

"No, Sarutobi-sama, I'm positive that I only saw a big black hole. Perhaps... someone put a jutsu that erased the Nine-Tails completely, if it's possible?"

It was as Sarutobi feared: Shinigami _got _sealed off inside Naruto, because there was no other explanation to why the boy had a glaring black hole inside him. Perhaps Shinigami's power outshined that of the Nine-Tails, so even with Byakugan, Hyuuga wouldn't be able to see it, and only saw death instead, which would be what Shinigami would want in the first place.

There was also a possibility that Shinigami did something to the Nine-Tails, what with his godly powers and all - even tailed beasts wouldn't be able to do anything against Gods. But what were the chances, really? He just had to talk to someone who knew more about tailed beasts than others... and he knew exactly who to ask for help.

"I appreciate your effort. You are now dismissed," Hiruzen said without sparing Hyuuga another glance and, with a swift 'Hai', he was gone.

xxxx

Jiraiya didn't utter a word as his student's body was placed in a coffin, but not before it was thoroughly washed and cleaned. Why? To make him look better for himself? No one was going to see his face after this coffin was closed, so Jiraiya simply couldn't comprehend why were they doing it in the first place - it was an extremely odd thing to do.

When he got the letter two days ago, he was just in the process of crossing the Land of Wave and already heard a few rumours that Konoha was shaken with Kyuubi's attack. Back then, he didn't believe those rumours and laughed them off because they sounded too absurd to his ears. But when he got a letter from the village that he grew in, stating that Kyuubi is once again sealed but at a great cost, he left Wave in a hurry and spent the major part of last two days on his feet.

As he arrived, he was encountered by five ninjas who told him to follow them because Sandaime-sama - and now, a Hokage once again - wanted to see him. He complied and spent the whole walk thinking over why would Sarutobi want to see him. Did Kushina die? Most likely not, seeing as everyone from Uzumaki clan had strong genes and extracting Kyuubi from them wouldn't result in Jinchuriki's immediate death. Did Minato die? Just as unlikely, what with Konoha's strong ninjas who could have come up with a way to tame the beast and this, in turn, would allow Minato to take things into his own hands.

However, when he walked into Hokage's office and saw two coffins of the ground - still wide open for anyone to see who is inside - he found that, for a second, he couldn't breathe. The last time he saw Minato and Kushina was with Kushina being pregnant and both of them asking for his advice on parenting and sealing off the Kyuubi if he manages to leave Kushina's body when she gives birth. Now, however, he was presented with two dead bodies of people he cared so much about and even considered his family. It would take anyone's breath away, even for a moment.

A few minutes later, four civilians, judging by the way they were dressed, entered the room and, after receiving a nod from Hokage, closed the coffins and carried them out of the cabinet without another word. Jiraiya found it hard to look away, but when he did, his eyes were full of guilt and he had no idea what to say next.

Seeing his state, Sarutobi gently offered him to sit down and then proceeded to explain the events from the moment Kushina was about to give birth. Jiraiya listened carefully, and when Sarutobi was finishing off his story, he decided to ask the question that bothered him from the very moment that he left the Wave country.

"Sarutobi, so is the boy - Naruto - alive now?"

"Yes," he answered truthfully and clicked his fingers. Suddenly, every single window in Hokage's office was open and in came three ANBU ninjas with one carrying Naruto in his arms. "Jiraiya, this is Minato and Kushina's son... would you like to hold him?"

Jiraiya didn't say anything, only nodded, and stood up to take the baby in his own arms. Only after ANBU left and all windows were closed once again did Jiraiya decide to lift up the blanket and look at the boy's face. He held back his surprise, but his eyes widened and he had to blink a few times, to make sure he wasn't just imagining things.

Grey hair, which was actually more white than grey, looked very much like his own hair - or that brat's Kakashi. Small horns looked fake and Jiraiya had to nudge them, because it looked like a pair of fake horns that kids would wear on festivals, but no, they were very much real and growing out of boy's head. The whisker marks on boy's face were probably because of Kyuubi and were most likely going to stay on his face for the rest of his life, by the look of it. The colour of his eyes was, perhaps, the only normal thing about Naruto - it had the same shade of blue as Minato's eyes did. Only then did Jiraiya realise that the boy was awake, but he wasn't making any noises - he simply stared at Jiraiya and laid completely still.

"So you are saying that Shinigami got sealed off inside him as well?" Jiraiya asked carefully, looking up at his teacher.

"It seems so, but I have no idea why he is still placed inside Naruto," Sarutobi answered truthfully. "After all, he is a Death God - he can do almost anything he wants and I kept thinking that he will simply kill Naruto off and free himself, yet here he is, right inside this small child. I can only assume that he gained those thorns and this grey hair because of Shinigami and he might go back to looking like an ordinary child if we were to extract Shinigami from him."

Jiraiya nodded and wiggled his fingers before Naruto's face, but the latter didn't show any sign of acknowledgement and continued blinking in complete silence. It was kind of scary. "So when are you planning to extract him?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, when are you planning to extract Shinigami from his body? He isn't going to stay inside his body for long, right?" Jiraiya asked and tentatively placed his other arm under the child's neck to keep his head from lolling to the side.

Tired sigh and Sarutobi scratched his forehead, "Jiraiya, you should understand the complexity of this situation..."

"Correct me if I'm wrong... but are you hesitating here?" Jiraiya couldn't believe his ears. How could someone as loving and caring as him even think over it? There was no way in hell letting Shinigami stay inside Naruto was a good idea.

"Jiraiya, I ask of you to listen to me." Hiruzen could see that Jiraiya was getting angrier with every moment - and this was completely understandable, but he had to think as a Hokage and act as one. As much as it hurt him to place this boy's life into the very hands of Death, he had no other choice; Sarutobi thought over what could be done again and again in the last two days and the only coherent thought, quite ironically, came from Danzo - the man he tried to avoid talking to at all costs.

"I don't care what you are about to say, Hiruzen-_sensei_, but you will get rid of him, right? This is Minato and Kushina's baby we are talking about - the two people who gave up their lives to save this village and its citizens."

"And so did many others - you weren't here to see all these people who laid down their lives for this village."

"I don't give a _crap _about other people - I'm asking you when you will remove Shinigami from Naruto's body, so he can live a more or less normal life with the Nine-Tails, sealed off inside him. I will stay here and make sure the seals never break and in return you ensure that no one gets to know the full truth about the boy."

"As I said, this matter is rather complicated, Jiraiya, and if we were to extract Shinigami from Naruto, this would inevitably lead to consequences much worse than those we can imagine. I ask of you to forget about removing Shinigami from Naruto's body for his own safety; this sort of thing has never happened before and he might very well die if we, indeed, remove Shinigami, or cause some other side-effects. You don't want this boy to go blind or deaf - or something even worse, do you?"

Without meaning to, Jiraiya clenched one of his hands into a fist and looked at Sarutobi, his face as serious as ever. He just couldn't phantom that his very teacher - the man that practically rose him, Tsunade... and Orochimaru - could say such things. Leaving Shinigami inside the boy? But it would mean hell for him! He will never live a normal life and Kami knows how many people will be after him after they find out that the Death God resided within some guy's body - and people _will _find out, there was no way to keep it secret until the boy died seventy or so years from now. And what if he died before them? Would Shinigami and the Nine-Tails be freed once again?

"Besides," Sarutobi continued, "we have never encountered case like this before. We don't know which seals have Minato changed in the last few moments, so it would be nearly impossible to find a counter-jutsu to it. If we try to find a way, it might take us months - years, even - and by that time you might start thinking that maybe, freeing Shinigami isn't the best idea, and Naruto might get used to him. Think about it from my point of view, Jiraiya, and think of those that will be harmed if not only Shinigami, but the Nine-Tails will be released due to our interference. But I have to warn you that we won't allow you to disappear with this child no matter what which, I'm sure you might attempt, though you can stay here, in Konoha. And you can help Naruto in keeping both the Nine-Tails and Shinigami at bay by raising him."

"Raising him?" Jiraiya repeated after his teacher. "How could I possible... I have never-"

"So what? You think Minato and Kushina would want someone else to raise their child, because think again - they wouldn't want anyone but the man who practically rose Minato and treated Kushina like a step-daughter." Sarutobi stood up and walked towards the window, looking over Konoha and thinking of the uncertain future. "I would ask my own wife to help in rising him, but she died on the day of the Kyuubi attack, and I can't possibly raise him on my own - as a Hokage, I have plenty of responsibilities and a high position to uphold. If you agree to stay and raise him, the ANBU will always be at your side and I will always be there to help."

A short pause passed between the two and Jiraiya stood next to his teacher, his mind full of thoughts and doubts and so many regrets he felt like suffocating, but by now he was used to it - he was used to this sorrow and sadness over losing someone precious. "Why me, though. You know that I hate staying at one place - I like to travel and train, and it would be accurate to refer to me as a perfect example of a hermit."

"No matter how much of a hermit you claim yourself to be, you aren't one - not with Tsunade, Minato and Kushina."

"Minato and Kushina are dead, and I have no idea where Tsunade is - it would take me a good few months to find her," Jiraiya answered truthfully and smirked at the look on Naruto's face - the boy seemed completely entranced with what was happening outside and he even stretched out his small chubby hand to touch the window. His expectant gaze was killing Jiraiya on the inside - it was as if the boy was waiting for someone to put a hand on the other side of the window; the boy obviously craved contact which, Jiraiya noted bitterly, was very unlikely in the next few years.

So what was better, abandoning all of it and leaving for one of his countless trips, or staying here and raising Kushina and Minato's son 'like they would want him to'? "If I leave, will this boy be placed in an orphanage?"

"Most likely, yes, even though I will try to look after him. And the occasional ANBU, just to make sure the seal doesn't waver."

At that moment, Jiraiya hated his own teacher more than he hated Kyuubi and everyone who were involved in capturing him to use him against Konoha. It wasn't a surprise to him that Sarutobi would choose something like this, not really - Jiraiya himself was raised in times of war and most people he knew didn't have parents and were raised in orphanages or some very distant relatives. What did he have to lose, really? Minato and Kushina themselves called him Naruto's godfather.

Perhaps, just before they died, they really _did _want him to raise Naruto; to see his first steps, hear his first words. The quiet voice inside his head chanted 'He might be the hero in the prophecy' but he was tired; so tired of being disappointed every time potential hero turned out to be just an ordinary ninja. He was absolutely certain that Minato was the chosen one, and look what happened: he died to save the village. Yeah, maybe he changed the history of Konoha by saving it, but saving a village in the Fire country wasn't going to have a big impact on the rest of the world.

But then again, what did he have to lose by staying here? He would still be able to continue writing, and looking after Minato's child was probably beneficial for everyone.

"Alright, Hokage-sama, I will stay in Konoha. And raise Naruto."

xxxx

Naruto, now four-and-a-half years old, skipped down the street with a balloon in his hands. He whistled a song under his nose and tried to think of what he and Jiraiya were going to do tonight, instead of paying attention to the hateful looks that were thrown his way. He never understood them, not really, and both Jiraiya and the Hokage refused to tell him why people hated him so much. Was it because of his white hair? But many people he knew had white hair, like his old man and the jonin that occasionally dropped by at their place - Hatake Kakashi. Or maybe it was because of his horns because normal people didn't have horns, right? Normal people had ordinary head and ordinary hair, and they weren't stared at whenever they walked down the street.

He shook his head and thought of how good today was going to be. He and old man were going to see fireworks tonight and then go out for ramen in his favourite place - Ichiraku. Well, he called it 'going out' but he was the only one enjoying Ichiraku's ramen; meanwhile, his old man kept staring at women with big... chests and, giving out that weird giggle of his, wrote something in the small book that he always carried around. Naruto told him to stop doing it - on many occasions, actually - but never did, and Naruto began noticing that people gave his old man some weird looks and some ladies even hit him whenever he was acting particularly weird around women.

He ran past a playground and, not listening his inner voice, decided to look who was playing there anyway. He didn't know the names of most of those kids, but he managed to find some familiar faces: Shikamaru and Choji. And that arrogant Uchiha kid.

Before he was able to look away, Sasuke turned around and their gazes met, a pair of blue staring into a pair of black eyes. Neither said a word, and even if they did it there was a good twenty meters between them, so they would have to shout to be heard. And words weren't need in any case - just their postures said it all. Naruto disliked Sasuke because he was a know-it-all genius and Sasuke probably disliked Naruto because Naruto was one of the few people who didn't care which sort of family Sasuke came from. In his opinion, being an Uchiha or Hyuuga didn't mean anything, and neither did coming from some big and strong clan - what mattered was the sort of person you were.

Naruto aimed to be as strong as his old man was when he grew up; he had a dream and was ready to give it his all to achieve it. What did Uchiha brat dream of? Becoming stronger than his brother? Succeeding as an Uchiha and making his parents proud? Whatever it was, Naruto didn't see it as being worthwhile - Sasuke couldn't possibly understand what it was like to have a big dream because everything was given to him on a saucer with a golden platter.

He once told Jiji about what he really thought about Uchiha Sasuke, and he laughed for three straight minutes. After he stopped and took a breath, Jiraiya explained to him that hating anyone is wrong; hating anyone didn't make you a better person - in fact, it made you look like someone weak who isn't able to live his life without being dependant on a low emotion that was titled 'hate'. Jiraiya also claimed that, being a complete child, Naruto knew nothing about hate and had better things to do in the meantime than hating on the Uchiha heir.

Still, Naruto couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at Sasuke and quickly running away before he was seen by any of the parents who, he had no doubt, would give him some bad glances once again. He ran for the rest of the way and only stopped when he reached his destination - Yamanaka flowers. Its owners - Inoichi and his wife, Noriko - were one of the few who didn't look at him like he was a demon, clad in human flesh. Sometimes he was particularly lucky as Inoichi has some spare dango and shared it with Naruto. He hoped that today was one of those days.

"Inoichi-san, Noriko-san!" he shouted out and opened the main door, the bell over it ringing to alert the shop owners that someone just came in. He didn't want the balloon in his hand to get in the way, so he tied it to a nearby chair. However, neither Noriko nor Inoichi came out to meet him - in fact, he heard someone talking in the back room, but they didn't seem to have heard his arrival.

He smiled and skipped towards it, looking into the small crack in the wall. He was surprised to see Yamanaka Noriko talking to some girl with pink hair. That girl didn't look older than himself and Naruto leaned on the wall, listening in and trying to see as much as he could from his current position.

"... won't like it?" asked the little girl.

"Why won't she like it? She is your Mum, after all - I'm sure that she will feel incredibly happy and thankful for receiving a beautiful bouquet from her daughter," said Noriko and patted pinkette on the head. She lowered her head and nervously intertwined her fingers, looking down.

"W-what if she will think that it's too much? Dad doesn't buy her many bouquets - it's usually jewellery and sweets."

"In this case, she will be more than happy to get some flowers from you. And if you are feeling uncertain, why won't you ask one of your friends for advice? I'm sure a beautiful girl like you has many friends, dear."

"I don't have friends, Yamanaka-san..."

Noriko clapped her hands, "You know what? I'm sure that Ino and you will become great friends if you talk - I can help you by telling Ino that some girl with bubble-gum hair dropped by and said that the bouquets that Ino arranged look absolutely stunning."

"Oh, but you can't do that! That would be lying and I don't want to lie to anyone. And I'm sure that she will say the same thing as everyone else - that I have a big forehead..."

That was the moment Naruto's nose decide to itch and, not being able to stop himself, he sneezed - loudly enough so that people outside the shop could hear his sneeze. He quickly stepped back and tried to breathe as quietly as possible, but it was pointless and he knew that. A moment later, the door that led to the back room was wide open and Naruto was facing the annoyed Noriko; the pink-haired girl stuck her head out and was eyeing him in pure curiosity.

"Naruto, what did I tell you about sneaking around?"

"Ummm, that it's a stupid thing to do and that I should never do it again?" he asked cheekily and scratched the back of his head. "Anoo, Yamanaka-san, where is your husband?"

"Did you come here for dango?" Noriko asked with a soft chuckle and Naruto vigorously shook his head, his white hair hitting his face in the process.

"Nah, I was just wondering. Jiji asked me to pick up two bouquets, for..." he made an uncertain gesture, knowing that he can't say 'Mum and Dad' in front of the pink-haired girl - and anyone else who didn't already know about his real parents.

"Ah, I see. Well, then, let's go and pick up two best bouquets for you," she said cheerfully and clapped her hands, telling him to follow her. Naruto looked back at the girl with bubble-gum hair and raised his eyebrow - was she just going to stand there? Feeling his gaze on her, she jumped up and quickly left the back room, walking out of the shop as swiftly as she could. The door after her closed, but not before she uttered 'Goodbye, Yamanaka-san'. Naruto shrugged and followed Noriko, standing right next to the counter and patiently waiting for her to pick up the best flowers.

Naruto watched as she walked towards the front of the shop and elegantly picked up white chrysanthemum. The loving look on her face and her caring nature were something Naruto always admired and he liked to think that his deceased mother had a similar character to Noriko-san, at least when it came to flowers. Whenever Naruto asked Jiraiya about his parents, the latter only gave him some brief descriptions, like 'she was very lively' or 'he was calm most of the time'; Naruto didn't even hope to ever hear about their missions, how they met and other things that seemed so insignificant, yet meant so much to the boy.

It didn't take her too long to finally compose two bouquets, so when she returned to the counter and placed them in his hands, he took out a crumbled banknote from his pocket and gave it to her. "Thanks, Yamanaka-san!"

"It's not a problem, Naruto. Don't forget about your balloon on the way back."

He left the shop with balloon and flowers and to anyone else it would look like he was attending a friend's birthday, but they would be far from right. The fact that he and Jiji were about to go to cemetery didn't make him sad - it never did - because Naruto never saw it as something negative, hence he never understood why people cried whenever they visited cemetery. He didn't mourn the dead - he was happy that he could visit them and have a spiritual connection between them, even if it lasted for an hour or so. He could swear that he felt his parents presence every time he and Jiji paid their graves a visit, and it was getting stronger with each one of their visits; he hoped that one day it will be strong enough that he will be able to actually talk to them.

He didn't remember the exact day he was told that his real parents died when the village was under some monster's attack. Jiji just mentioned it during lunch and they continued eating like it wasn't a big thing. Later on Naruto asked Jiraiya more about his parents, but there wasn't any extreme need to know more about his deceased parents and he assumed it was because Jiji sort of replaced his parents for him. He did everything that Naruto expected an ordinary parent to do - taught him how to eat, talk and manners, among other things, like taking him out to play in a park or spend weekends outside Konoha. Both of them liked to travel, so weekends like this were a big treat to Naruto.

It didn't take him long to reach his house and as he was running up the stairs, he heard his old man shouting. "Gaki, Kakashi told me what you and Kiba did yesterday! Come here!"

Naruto yelped and almost let go of his balloon, but composed himself in time. Okay, so he had a choice: he could either leave these things behind and run far, far away from Konoha and the Fire country altogether, or he could face it like his imaginary cold and cool self. Out of the two, he chose the smartest option.

He took off in an unknown direction, his legs moving at incredible speed.

However, he simply overlooked the fact that his godfather wasn't just anyone - he was one of the three Sannin, and him running away wouldn't stop Jiraiya from capturing him. A few moments later, he appeared before Naruto with a simple 'poof'. Before Naruto was able to escape him by running back, Jiraiya grabbed him by his collar and lifted him from the ground.

"Gakiiiii!" he shouted with a mad smile. "I told you not to run away from me because it's absolutely pointless and a pure waste of my chakra!"

"Haaa let go of me, old man!" Naruto shouted and began wiggling out of Jiraiya's hold, although they both knew that it was a playful struggle.

"I _told _you not to be so arrogant and you knew of the consequences even before doing it, Naruto - both you and Kiba. I'm just wondering what made you think that filling Hokage's cabinet with a whole bunch of tadpoles will be funny for anyone but you two?!"

"Hey, we didn't harm them - we brought them inside Hokage's office in fish tanks and then left them there. It was a harmless prank, old geezer."

Jiraiya sighed, face-palming himself and shaking his head. Damned be the day he decided that parenting someone who had Kushina's genes was a good idea! "Now listen here, Gaki. I'm not asking you where you discovered these tadpoles and how you and Kiba managed to get them inside Hokage's tower without being noticed, although I have to admit that this was a well-thought plan... Khm, anyway, I only wanted to know why you did this. I know that Kiba did this because his older sister didn't' get the B-ranked mission she wanted last week, but you..?"

Naruto finally wiggled out of Jiraiya's tight grip and took a few steps back, eyeing the Sannin with cautiousness. He crossed arms over his chest and frowned, "I had my reasons, Jiji. Hokage isn't as good as you think he is."

"Hmm, is that so... Are you sure you don't want to tell me?"

"Yeah!"

"Definitely?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then... And here I thought you were going to tell me, we would visit you parents and we will get some ice-cream on the way back."

Jiraiya could almost feel the way Naruto perked up at the mere mention of word 'ice-cream'. This time of the year was particularly boiling in Konoha, so anything that was sweet and made the weather more bearable was a treat. If Hiruzen found out that he was feeding a young boy with only ramen and sweets, he was going to get one of the countless lectures on parenting, so they had to be careful.

Naruto licked his lips and wiped the sweat off his forehead, his mind buzzing with ideas and possibilities: to give in or to stand his grounds? To spill the beans and get a reward and keep silent and be left without sweets? As stubborn as he was, Naruto usually gave up when it came to sweets - or food in general, for that matter, which is why Jiraiya often compared him to Choji and others from Akimichi clan, though Naruto didn't see what was so bad with it. So he liked to eat - which sane person didn't?

"I will tell you, Jiji," Naruto said at last. "But you promise not to laugh or tell anyone - even that weirdo Kakashi, okay?"

Jiraiya raised his eyebrow, wondering what could possibly be so bad that Naruto told him not to talk about this with _Kakashi_, of all people - he wasn't the one to gossip to begin with. Besides, if Kakashi _did_ find out and tell Sarutobi or anyone else, no one would believe him due to his shabby image.

"Okay, I promise," he said and proudly placed his palm over his heart. Naruto was at that age where Jiraiya simply had to give in from time to time, and now was one of those times where he had to allow Naruto to be the loudmouth and the idiot that he was.

"Fine," Naruto grumbled and shifted his weight from his right leg to his left, walking around like he was jumping from rock to rock and falling was equal to losing. "I overheard some guys talking about Sarutobi being stronger than you but I didn't get to kick them because Choji, Kiba and Shikamaru dragged me backwards. They said that it will get me into a big trouble and you will be sad. We usually don't go to see Mum and Dad when you are sad, so I had to step back. Kiba came up with a plan to show everyone that Hokage wasn't that strong and that he doesn't see everything that happens in the village."

Holding back his laughter, Jiraiya scratched his head - just one of the habits that he picked up from Naruto - and said with a straight face, "I see... so you decided to take a revenge on me?"

"Hell yeah, cause you are my old man!"

"Don't swear, boy - who even taught you swear words?!"

"I just heard someone saying it, so I figured you won't mind if I use it a few times. You won't tell anyone about it, remember?!"

Jiraiya nodded and pointed towards two bouquets, with the balloon being long gone somewhere in the skies. "Don't worry, Gaki, me and other ninjas don't usually sit in the kitchen with two cups of coffee, and neither do we talk about you and your pranks. Now pick those up, I don't want them getting too dirty, and let's go - I bet Kushina will be angry for waiting for you so long."

xxxx

White chrysanthemum that Noriko Yamanaka picked out for him looked incredibly good, lying next to Minato and Kushina's graves. If Naruto had a choice, he would have picked out orange or red flowers - just like his Mum's hair colour, from what he could see on the few photographs that he was given by Jiraiya. They were bright and practically screamed 'flamboyant', yes, but so did his mother's hair; in fact, even yellow would do - the same shade as his father's hair. He still didn't know why on Earth he had white hair instead of it being blond or red. Oh, how cool would it be to have red hair!

Either way, he didn't like the fact that the flowers just had to white or pale-yellow chrysanthemum. They were just too pure and too out of place. Why did they have to be white?

Naruto coughed before lowering himself and sitting down on his knees before his parents grave. Jiraiya left him alone, saying something about checking up on 'an old friend', whatever that meant, so Naruto didn't have to speak to his parents silently - he liked to speak to them like they were here, with him. He closed his eyes and put his vivid imagination to work, making the faces inside his head - the photos that he could recall at any time or the day or night without a fail.

"Mum, Dad," he said and paused, "I have caused Jiji a lot of problems lately. I heard some adults talking about some 'puberty' thing; at first I thought it was a sort of meat, but Jiji explained to me that it happens to everyone when they turn twelve - at the same age that they become genins. You know, I want to become a genin. I don't think about becoming a chuunin or jonin, because I just want to become like Jiji and he told me that having a high rank didn't mean anything. All I have to do is practice every day, go to a lot of missions and beat," he covered his mouth, "the crap out," he put his hands down, "out of bad guys. I will definitely find the guys who were responsible for demon's attack, Mum, Dad. I don't think much about it and it's okay if I never find them, if it means that Konoha is protected - you would want me to live a safe and peaceful life, right?

"So I will become one of the strong guys and find those that I need to protect, like both of you did. I will travel a lot - and try out lots of different food, seeing as you named me after ramen, dattebayo! - when I become a genin and go to missions. You'd like me to do it, right? Right?"

He stopped talking, his mind running all over the place as he simply didn't know what to talk about - there were too many things he wanted to say, but none of them would come out right. He nervously tugged on his white hair and took a deep breath. What would his parents want to hear?

"I don't have many friends, ya know. It's cause most adults don't like me for some reason and they tell their kids that they can't play with me. It's stupid, right? Just because I have horns and white hair... I'm sure there are some other people out there who have weirdnesses, too. And why is it weird for me to have horns and it's awesome for Uchihas and Hyuugas to have some strange eyes? I mean, that Sharingan is black spots on red that keep spinning - how is that cool? And what's with those white eyes that Hyuugas have? Bweh...

"Anyway, I don't like other kids that much. I hang around with Choji and Kiba and sometimes Shikamaru, but only when he isn't being his usual self and just lays everywhere he sees, staring at skies and talking about clouds. There are some other guys that I see in the park, but they are nasty and they make fun of other girls - you wouldn't want me to make fun of girls, right, Mum? But after the time I got into a fight because I was defending girls, neither of the girls thanked me for doing so, can you imagine it?! They always ignore me and their parents always gossip about me, like I am not there or something..."

_'Would you want me to make them look? To pay attention to you?'_

Naruto opened his eyes and jumped up, his head spinning because he felt dizzy for getting up so quickly. He looked around, but there was no one - in fact, there seemed to be no one in the cemetery besides himself and Jiji who was gone somewhere. He blinked a few times and called out, "Who's that?"

_'I'm not out there - I'm inside your head. Think, instead of speaking out.'_

'Who are you?!'

_'Guess - there aren't many who would prefer to sit inside your head and talk to you instead of having their own share of peace. I know you enough from all these years to be certain that you won't keep calm until I tell you.'_

'I don't know - it can be anyone! I might be talking to myself without meaning to.'

_'So you think that I'm your future self? Or your smarter self?'_

'Yeah, maybe. Stop asking me and show yourself!'

_'I would show myself but at this age it will kill you. We will have to wait until I can show myself. For now, you can only know my name. Human beings refer to me as Shinigami.'_

'Shinigami? Is it some ghost from the past? I've never heard about Shinigami.'

Quiet chuckle. _'Silly human. Shinigami is a God of Death, the one that can take one's life to take away their opponent's life. I am a creature that not many are brave enough to summon, someone horrifying enough that some people would be scared to even utter my name. I am someone who consumes souls without giving anything in return, child.'_

'Then why are you inside my head? What do you need from me?'

_'This isn't something that you need to know, not yet. You only need to remember my name and that I am not here for long. I would have appeared much quicker but you child's mind was not able to comprehend my speaking until this very moment. Now that I am able to communicate with you, everything will be much easier. Many things that didn't make sense to you before will make sense now.'_

'What, like... why people avoid me and even occasionally spit on me?'

_'Yes, you just have to wait and all of your questions will be answered.'_

'But... why are you still inside me? I mean, you are a God, can't you just teleport somewhere else or something?'

Sigh. _'You aren't very smart, are you? I told that for now, it is out of your understanding, and if you want to carry on with your ordinary life and become the strongest ninja to ever exist, all you have to do is listen to me. Why do I want to help you? Because there isn't anything else to do and I know you well enough to say that you have a pure soul - not like the trash I had to consume for the majority of my existence. Over time, it will begin changing, but I will be there to guide you and tell you how to avoid making mistakes. Now carry on with your life, Naruto, while I look after you. Think of me as your second godfather.'_

Naruto stood still and tried to think if he should or shouldn't tell Jiraiya about what just happened. Maybe his old man will think that he is going crazy for hearing voices in his head? Even though he was certain that the voice that he heard belonged to a real demon. But then again, demon looking after him? What sort of crazy ideas was he getting?

He shook his head and rapidly blinked, head spinning from what just occurred. He tried calling Shinigami in his head ('Oi, Shinigami-saaan, where are you?') but he didn't receive any response even after a few attempts, so he gave up. He could go to the library and read about Shinigami, but, ugh, reading was never his forte. If he wasn't about to tell Jiji about it, he could ask someone else, though he only knew a handful of adults. Sarutobi? Kakashi? Yeah, Kakashi seemed like the best choice, what with his porn addiction and complete inability to pay attention to things whenever he was reading his favourite books.

"Sorry, Mum and Dad, but I have to do something," he addressed his parents' graves and bowed. A look around - Jiraiya was still 'visiting his friends', so Naruto had to shout. "Oi, Jiji, I'm going to see Kakashi! Do you know where he is?"

"He is probably in his favourite pub - I saw him return from his week-long mission yesterday, Gaki," came Jiraiya's reply and Naruto couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, but it didn't matter; for all he knew, his old man could have created a few dozens of Shadow clones and told them to look after him by hiding in the nearby trees. That's just the kind of person the infamous Sannin was.

"Okay, I will see you later on! And don't forget about the ice-cream - you still own me some!"

With these words, Naruto lowered his head, kissed the white chrysanthemum on their graves and whispered 'I love you' before running off, refreshing morning air hitting him right in the face and his mouth stretching into a wicked smile.

xxxx

A/N: What can I say... I doubt that there is anything that hasn't being interpreted in the Naruto-verse, so this story is probably far from being original. Anyway, I hope that Naruto being sorta OOC isn't a big surprise to you, seeing as he was raised by a loving {stepfather} godfather, but there are certain aspects about him that stayed the same (e.g. him being hated by the village, plus his boisterous character… that one is inherited lol)

I don't plan to stay true to canon from this point onwards, apart from some necessary key moments; this being said, don't expect Team 7's mission in the Wave country, or some other extremely overused premises (I'm sure that you are just as bored of it as I am). I also took it upon myself to change a lot of things regarding chakra and how it's used, characters' backgrounds, et cetera, et cetera.

Oh, and the bit about Naruto knowing about his true parents - it was necessary, ok. I doubt Jiraiya would want to keep it a secret from Naruto, or it's just my wishful thinking. Anyway, please post any questions and uncertainties you are having about this story, I'd love to hear more from you ;)


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This story includes _a loooot _of Japanese mythology (which is expected, seeing as one of the main characters is a God). While doing my research, I have repeatedly sighed and rolled my eyes, because you can't even imagine the number of names Kishi has borrowed from Japanese mythology - dude, like 95% of the Naruto-verse techniques (plus some characters) are called after some deities, gods and spirits. As a result, I was struggling to find names & titles for this story.

But never mind my rambling, this story was definitely a piece of cake to write; you can probably just skip some of the bits in this chapter which concern Shinigami as it doesn't affect the plot - it's just me being a bit philosophical... or something, but I felt the need to make it clear that Shinigami is ancient and wise. And what best way to do so if not by including some boring-ass philosophical stuff? Remember, kids: show, don't tell (my English teacher would be so happy with me right now).

P.S. Excuse some swearing which you will encounter in this chapter - I try to be smart with it and use as little of it in my writing as possible (meh, that's what I tell myself anyway - I swear a loooooot more in real life than characters in my stories do, so there's that). Thanks for the amazing response, guys!

xxxx

Chapter Two

~Inside Naruto, unbeknown to him: on the night of Kyuubi's attack~

It was mere minutes after he was called to the human world and Shinigami didn't know where he was. One minute he was consuming Minato Namikaze's soul and the next he was sucked into some sort of vessel. He lived for such a long time and he was used to complete darkness and sometimes he even had to stay without light for years, but it didn't mean that it made Shinigami's experience any more pleasant. Despite what people thought, darkness was worse than death. Death meant the end of one's short life but darkness, darkness meant nothingness - complete silence and isolation.

For him, darkness wasn't anything good because there weren't any souls that he was able to consume; humans called him through a jutsu and he ate two souls (or more, if the one that called him used Shadow clones) at no cost for him - what more could a god ask for? All the other gods that he knew or met even once carried out a very different existence to his and most of them, like Hachiman - his distant relative - had to spent a lot of their time watching humans, unlike himself who spent his time far, far away from humans. It was easier this way - humans were loud and they constantly thrived to fight and kill, enduring into a never-ending hurricane of drama, passion and blood. Most of the souls he ate belonged to those warriors (or ninjas, as they called themselves nowadays) so he knew a lot about their motives and goals.

Some time passed by and the darkness began to slowly dissipate. Shinigami found himself standing in the middle of a long dark-green corridor with hundreds of doors on each side. Looking down, he couldn't see the floor because it was covered in thick smoke. It looked nothing like the temple that he lived in for so many years; the temple that he had a hard time to obtain and take away from a bunch of ignorant spirits. No, his temple was a work of art after he began living there and made a few small changes - it practically screamed 'the God of Death resides here', what with countless shadows all over the place and whisper, constant whisper that would scare off anyone with even a tip bit of sanity left over. Shinigami liked to keep his possessions to himself, and his temple was no exception.

He began walking straight, his long white hair flying behind him as if searching for something. In reality, his hair, just like the rest of his body, was filled with power and it acted as his sensory field, looking out for anything remotely alive. Humans had 'chakra' but Gods were much higher than that - their powers didn't have a label, for they were so diverse and so magnificent that not a single human being would be able to fully comprehend them. Or control them, for that matter. And now, just like always, Shinigami's hair was trying its hardest to find _something _that would get him out of here. Although he was able to teleport himself out of here in a matter of a second which he did on countless occasions, he wasn't certain about the distance and just how big this building really was.

He kept walking, though he didn't know for how long, not that time mattered to him anyway - it was only a thing created by humans to measure how much of it they have left. Shinigami has noticed long ago that humans were too picky and curious for their own good and they just _had _to know when, how or where - Gods didn't have those needs due to their immortality. When you are immortal, time is only a concept that would tell you approximately how much is left until your next meal, and Shinigami was no different. He passed by hundreds of doors, his mind at complete ease and his legs moving on their own accord; maybe, a few days passed by, maybe a few weeks, but as some point in time he was finally able to reach something. And this 'something' turned out to be a pair of tall and golden gates with a seal in the middle.

Shinigami wasn't stupid - and he wasn't human, so impatience wasn't in his nature - so he stood good twenty meters away from those gates, his hands at his sides and his eyes set straight on the seal. He knew a lot about them and this seal looked fresh, like it was put in place quite recently, but he could only guess what was hidden behind the bars.

A strong wind from behind interrupted his concentration and made him look up: something was moving behind these bars after feeling this wind. Or, rather, someone.

At first, there was a loud, animalistic roar which shook the ground that Shinigami stood on. It was followed by a strong wave of chakra and Shinigami was certain - this chakra didn't belong to a human. Oh no, he knew this chakra very well: it belonged to a creature that was blessed by Rikudou Sennin, or as he was called by his parents - Hagoromo Otsutsuki. He refused to call _it _the same way as Hagoromo has named it, for the Nine-Tails didn't deserve to have a name - it was simply part of the original Ten-Tails and had no right to be referred to as a separate being.

Now Shinigami could recall what happened before he found himself in that dark corridor. That human, Namikaze Minato, called him to human world and, by diving the Nine-Tails chakra and placing the Yin half in himself, was in the process of placing the Yang part in his own child - Shinigami knew that because, moments before consuming Namikaze Minato's soul, he could read his true thought and sense his feelings. His sense of guilt didn't seem to have an end, for he was going to seal off a tailed beast inside his own son, and Shinigami could almost taste how delicious his soul would feel on God's tongue, but that's not what happened. Instead, he was pulled forward by some force, and by the looks of it he was sealed off inside this child's body along with the Nine-Tails.

Before trying to free himself, Shinigami decided to check what could be done about the demon fox in this cage. He didn't mind demons, but there was just something about those tailed beasts that made him instantly sick - he just couldn't look at them without thinking about wiping them off the Earth's face. Perhaps it was because they somehow resembled him humans: under all this chakra, there were feelings that couldn't be controlled and sometimes took over the tailed beasts. Shinigami knew very well what the Nine-tails was under its layers and layers of chakra: pure anger and hate. A long time ago, the Kyuubi was full of agony - it was weak and wasn't stronger than its 'brothers and sisters', but then something happened; something that turned its existence upside down and made the demon fox stronger than any other tailed beast.

"Nine-Tails, show yourself," Shinigami said, loud enough so that the Kyuubi would hear him. For some time, there was no response and no chakra, as if the Nine-Tails was concentrating it to the point of where all of its chakra became a burning ball that would destroy everything around.

Shinigami took a few steps closer and stood right in front of the demon's cage, his palm placed safely on the seal and his gaze set straight on it. It wasn't as complicated as he had thought it would be and it would probably take him a few hours or so to remove it, if he wished to. However, that's not what he desired in the least as freeing the Nine-Tails meant inevitable problems. First of all, they had to talk and he had to find out if there was an easy way of getting out of here.

He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Shinigami stared right into a big red iris with a thin pupil. The demon's mouth was distorted in a mocking sneer which showed his sharp fangs. The Nine-Tails turned out to be far bigger than Shinigami remembered him to be, but it was expected, for he hasn't seen him since the day that the Ten-Tails was divided, and back then Kyuubi was a mere baby, his eyes wide in wonder and his ears always up, curious and listening. No, there wasn't much left from that version of the Nine-Tails, apart from his reddish-orange fur.

"I see that you aren't afraid of me," Shinigami noted coldly and sneered right back at him, thus revealing his own fangs; he hid his left arm behind himself and held tight onto his sword. He knew that the gates will prevent the Nine-Tails from jumping right at him, but a little cautiousness didn't harm. And just in case the tailed beast was getting cocky, in which case he would just cut his tails, one by one.

"If I were to meet you while we were still out there, absolutely free and having our powers with us, I would be," the Nine-Tails admitted out loud and casually laid down right before he case, placing one of his paws over another as if he was relaxing. Perhaps he was, but that didn't make any sense to Shinigami. "As it is, I am here and you are there, so you can't touch me and consume my cha-"

"Why aren't you angry?"

Kyuubi snorted and orange bubbles around him that were filled with chakra began bursting, one by one. So Shinigami was right - Kyuubi didn't lose all of his chakra and, along with having the bigger part of it reside within him, the Nine-Tails could produce small amounts of it outside his body and control it.

"I've been here for week and not to say that I got accustomed to it, but I decided to save my anger for later. I already used up too much of it in the first two days; you can't imagine how awful these gates looked right after my attacks!"

But the things was that Shinigami _could _imagine it; he had a vivid imagination and he could almost see how all of Kyuubi's angry attacks were directed towards these poor gates. He shifted his right palm from the seal and moved it over the golden bars, his long nails scraping the perfectly looking gates - it seemed that the seal had the ability to recover itself and, if he didn't know better, Shinigami would have assumed that it was only put in place a few hours ago.

"So they _do _get affected by chakra," Shinigami whispered to himself and licked his lips in deep concentration.

"It would be unrealistic for them to be resistant to all sorts of chakra," the Nine-Tails grumbled with annoyance and scraped his paw over bars from his side. "But it doesn't matter: I will wait and get out of here quite soon. What about you? The question is, have _you_ figured out how to get out of here, seeing as I have no intentions of helping you, cheap imitation of God."

Shinigami gave out a deep, throaty laugh, though it resembled a sound of chains being dragged against each other. He let go of his katana and instead spread his arms like one would do to embrace someone, but the venomous smile on his face didn't mean anything good for the Nine-Tails. Instead of giving him a proper response, Shinigami clenched and unclenched his fists, and a strong wave knocked the Kyuubi right over, despite his weight and the overall magnificent size.

"Say what you like, demon fox, but nature is on my side," he sneered and let his arms drop. "These gates mean nothing to me, so you better answer my questions before something happens. You should know that I can pour God's powers into that seal and make sure you never get out of here."

"You can't do that," Kyuubi growled at him, picking himself up and no longer looking as relaxed as he did moments ago. "You are trapped here, just like me, which means that you don't have your full powers with you."

"On the very contrary, I do. Are you begging me for demonstration? The wind that knocked you off was nothing but a child's play, Nine-Tails." Shinigami began walking alongside the bars, lightly scraping them with his nails, and his face was no longer as demonic as it was seconds ago. "By now, you should have already realised that half of your power - the one that was placed inside the Yang part, that is - was taken away and placed inside Namikaze Minato. You, however, have no chance of regaining it when, or _if_, you get out of here, seeing as I have consumed his very soul."

The Nine-Tails no longer looked that arrogant - on the contrary, his eyes were finally showing the first glint of anger. A little push in the right direction and the Kyuubi will lose his cool and will run inside his cage like crazy, hitting the golden bars and burning himself in the process. "Lies, you can spill his soul - Hagoromo Otsutsuki installed everything that he knew inside our heads and I know that the Death God can spill one's soul like it's nothing, especially if it hasn't been consumed that long ago."

Shinigami shook his head, his mind finally at ease. The damn Kyuubi didn't seem to know how to get out of here, despite his false statement, or he knew but it would take a long time; although the Death God didn't care about time, he preferred to spend it somewhere else and free, given the chance.

As it was, there was only one thing he could do if he planned to stay here without getting crazy because of the demon fox and his chakra: he had to consume him, just like he would consume a usual soul. The only disadvantage in this seemingly perfect plan was that he had never consumed a demon's soul before, for they didn't have souls per se - they had twisted forms of spirits that didn't fill him up and humans would compare it to a taste of bleach, or something along these lines. There was also a fact that, quite naturally, he never tried consuming a tailed beast before - 'never had an occasion' is what he would say if one of deities would ask him on the topic. Did it taste the same as demon's soul or did it have a note of human-like soul inside? Was it that easy to consume a Kyuubi to begin with?

He likes his lips once again, stopped striding and slowly turned around, his face mere centimetres from the beast's cage. Shinigami was going to be the first creature to ever consume tailed beast's soul - truly consume, though it was only its half; seeing as Minato sealed off the Yin part within himself, however, Shinigami thought that it was accurate to assume that it meant that the Yin part resided within himself, too. Of course, it was only his assumption, but the laws of space meant nothing to him. Even though the Yin part wasn't directly consumed by him, Minato's soul within him meant just that. So, it was only fair that the Yang part was going to join it and 'complete the picture'.

Without missing a beat, Shinigami clasped his hands and rose them in a praying-like manner. He then began to vigorously chant something under his nose and the look of deep concentration on his face made the Nine-Tails squint: he tried to read what the half-assed God was mumbling under his breath. It took him a few seconds to realise that it wasn't some harmless praying and another few seconds to back away, to the furthest point of the cage, roaring and hitting everything around him uncontrollably.

In times like this, the Kyuubi was taken over by his raw emotions and instincts; after dividing the Ten-Tails into nine different tailed beasts, each adopted a particular human trait - unwillingly, of course, as they were assigned to them by their so-called father Hagoromo. And, quite unfortunately, Kurama was the last one to be named, thus the last one to adopt a character trait, and while his 'brothers' and 'sisters' were lucky enough to adopt somewhat harmless ones, he was left with 'anger'. So now, when he knew that there was no way out of here - not with a God that wanted to consume him - he resorted to the one emotion that he all about. Anger.

He trashed himself against the walls, not caring enough about his physical body and knowing damn well that the bruises would be healed in seconds and his bright orange fur will grow right back on; it always did. The Nine-Tails knew that it was pointless, but he began hitting his tails against the nearby walls in the darker corner of his cage, which made sparkles and the mere grains of his demon chakra fly in all possible directions, but never flying behind the bars and never coming anywhere near the goddamn seal.

"Look at you, the supposedly strong Nine-Tails that destroyed villages and killed thousands of people," Shinigami said when he finished his whispering and bared his fangs in a semblance of a smile. "It is far better to be a fake God than it is to be a small fox that doesn't know it's place, Kyuubi. Are you certain that there is nothing you want to tell me before I eat your soul, which will mean that I will know everything that you currently know?"

The Nine-Tails, however, has lost his ability to think rationally and didn't pause even for a second, repeatedly hitting the walls and producing large amounts of chakra without realising. Even if his true self thought about cooperating, the anger that was sealed off inside him prevented the Kyuubi from clearing his mind and negotiating with the almighty Shinigami. Thus, the choice was made, and Shinigami took a few steps back, his sword out of the sheath and pointing at the Nine-Tails.

"Let's dance, demon fox," he said and guffawed and his cackling didn't mean anything good for the Nine-Tails.

Before Kurama knew it, Shinigami took off, his sword and his white garments swirling as he was getting closer to his target. The Kyuubi wasn't certain, but he could swear that he saw a series of cursed sealed on Death God's arms before he, quite unexpectedly, went right through the gates.

"These flimsy bars right here? They mean nothing to me if I don't want them to," Shinigami said before raising his sword and cutting off one of the Kyuubi's tails in a blink of an eye. For the Nine-Tails, everything was a blur; he thought of attacking his opponent, of slicing him into many pieces with his chakra - or his tales, whichever one was more useful - but his physical shell refused to comply. His mind and body didn't act together, and the Nine-Tails could only assume that it was all Shinigami's fault and whatever it was that he chanted made Death God's target completely useless.

Nonetheless, this didn't last for long, for Kurama's anger reached its peak and nothing could have even the slightest control over his body. He struggled to jump and eat the Death God alive just yet, though his mind was full of colourful images, all of which included Shinigami's lifeless body between his teeth, Kyuubi's sharp teeth slicing right through his stomach and his garments being turned to mere shreds that were picked up by wind and were thrown all over the place.

For now, he was only able to use his tails - his remaining eight tails - so he made all of them attack his target at once. Shinigami avoided his attack, jumping over his tails and using their tips as his support in doing so. This was the most frustrating thing about fighting a god: because, like demons, they didn't possess bodies as weak as humans did, gods weren't affected by demon chakra and they weren't burned alive at the single contact with it, instead treating it like a gush of warm water that felt really nice on one's skin.

Kurama swore under his breath and this time made his tails spiral and attack Shinigami from eight different sides, but this turned out to be pointless, too, when Shinigami used his sword as some sort of a magnet and, by pointing right in the middle - where demon's tails wouldn't reach him in time - pulled himself forward, thus ignoring all of the attacks and getting out of the trap just in time. The Death God proceeded to take out tanto in the process of jumping down; when he was centimetres away from falling to the ground, he was able to maneuver and turn himself upside down, aiming for Kyuubi's foot. This made his sword pierce deep into Kurama's right foot and all of his weight rested on the arm that was holding his sword. While the Nine-Tails cried out - it was a cry full of wrath, rather than pain or anything else - Shinigami used his other hand that held tanto to push himself upwards and fly off his foot, leaving his sword behind, good forty centimetres inside the beast's foot.

For Shinigami, it was a matter of being quick enough and cutting off all of Kyuubi's tales before the latter one was finally able to move. When all of his tails were gone, the Death God will be able to consume his soul without the threat of being attack and thrown to the side - which, he knew for a fact, Shinigami wanted so much. And so, he smirked to himself and rushed towards his enemy's tails, his hand holding tightly onto the old-fashioned tanto.

xxxx

After he invaded the temple a few thousand years ago, Shinigami decided to keep the very few books that he found inside different rooms to himself. As far as he knew, most of them were written by humans who lived here long before he step his foot inside this temple, for they were long since gone, afraid but smart enough to understand that it no longer belonged to them, and even agnostics and atheists accepted that it was now occupied by someone far more magnificent and stronger than them. He disliked most humans and he didn't think there will ever be anything that will change his opinion about them, but books shone some light on what exactly those human beings were.

They were curious, first and foremost, and this curiosity has meant death for many. They were also rather reserved, and preferred to keep their own thoughts to themselves, although this was becoming less and less true with each century as innovations and ideas became welcome.

But the one thing he did like about these books was their detailed description of humans and their minds; what else would the books, found in temple, be about, really? Cooking?

No, most of them described, albeit quite vaguely at some times and with too many details at other times, human's spirit and how it was connected with one's mind. Shinigami could recall himself chuckling when he flipped through the first few pages of one of these books, having found them absurd for their extremely abstract nature: there was no evidence supporting their ideas and believes. Essentially, humans lived their lives, believing in something that they made up, and then claimed that they understood the world that surrounded them, based on these inaccurate assumptions. It wasn't only the spirit and mind: it was also their concept of time, space and freedom, with the latter two being too complex for simple human minds to even begin comprehending.

Over time, however, he decided to pick another book and began skim-reading, looking for something that would catch his attention. And there it was. The old religion - the one that emerged long ago, centuries before the creation of the so-called chakra - was, for the lack of other words, chakra's birthplace. This religion's ideas and concepts were what later came to be referred to as 'ninjutsu' and 'genjutsu', both of which were simply emerging from chakra. Not only this, but that book also explained - in maximum details - what would happen to the world if chakra were to disappear one day, and Shinigami took a note of it, storing this bit of information for later.

And so it happened that this 'later' was now. He already figured out that he was sealed off inside a little human boy - that is, from consuming the Nine-Tails, which made all of demon's memories and knowledge transfer to him. The seal that was placed on the demon fox was nothing, comparing to the one that the one Namikaze Minato accidentally used on him. Oh no, this seal was eternal. This seal ensured that he stayed inside his boy until his very death and even after that, spending the rest of eternity in his corpse, even after there was nothing left of this human but bones: he would forever be stored in this 'mind hallway', or sorts.

Humans had a saying which implied that humans die but their minds and ideas don't, and Shinigami had a right to say that this was highly accurate: because of this seal, he will always stay inside this particular hallway, although after this human's death it will no longer remain physical, and only the remains of this seal.

As a result, there were two ways to go around this seal: wait until the boy grows up, has kids and all that other stuff that people wanted to have in their lives, and then dies, thus meaning the loss of the physical constrain, so he had one less barrier to worry about and had slim, but a chance nonetheless to break out of here. Of course, he would have to wait until the boy dies in a natural manner, as he simply couldn't kill him from this place in boy's mind - he didn't have enough control over the rest of boy's body.

Another exit from this situation was trickier, but required less time, though it was also quite risky. After consuming the demon's soul (and proving himself right: indeed, his soul tasted like bleach, but like a bleach that was set on fire), there were small remains of chakra inside boy's body, just enough to ensure that he is breathing and his whole body is functioning correctly. In a perfect situation, Shinigami would be able to access all parts of this body, but right now he was residing within boy's mind, thus was only able to more or less control his brain and everything inside it, which included chakra. If he went around this corridor and visited every single room in boy's mind - and there were plenty of those, mind you - he would be able to suck all remains of chakra in boy's mind, which would likely lead to brain death, thus boy's death - exactly what he needed. The only danger of this plan, besides the fact that it would take him at least ten years to go around this whole corridor, was that, by sucking all of this chakra inside himself, he will be left poisoned by the time he gets out of here. Chakra wasn't something that was practiced by Gods, therefore their bodies weren't used to receiving large numbers of chakra all at once; eating souls was a different thing altogether - the God didn't receive any of his victim's chakra as it was lost somewhere in the process of consuming a soul.

However, before doing anything else, he had to go and thoroughly explore the place that he was stuck in for quite some time, starting now. Shinigami hid his sword and tanto, stepped over the lifeless body that once belonged to the Kyuubi and made his way out of the cage by simply going through the gates like there was nothing on his way.

He didn't realise it before - or maybe it happened after he consumed demon fox's soul, he couldn't tell for sure - but this room was flooded with water that would reach average human's ribs; for Shinigami, however, it was nothing more but a little puddle, though he felt the ends of his garment soaking and it was quickly getting annoying. Not that he let his emotions take over him, but he held no desire in having his only piece of clothing soak in some muddy water.

Shinigami left the room, only to stand in the middle of the corridor once again, and began walking, all the while whistling some tune under his nose and occasionally scraping his nails over the walls. His hair stayed down the whole time, so the Death God was certain: he was the only one here, and he could only hope that the boy's mind will expand and reach these corridor's sooner or later.

xxxx

~Back to present, Naruto is 4 1/2~

"Eeeh? You have a voice inside your head that keeps talking to you?" Kakashi asked, just to make sure and even stuck his pinkie in his ear as if he was clearing out all the dirt out of it. He was turning nineteen in a few days - which made him one year closer to legal age, thus he could drink and read porn whenever he felt like it - but then again, it wasn't like he wasn't doing all of these things already. There weren't many people who were brave enough to stand up to him and tell him to stop doing those 'immoral' things, so he 'lived his life to the fullest', as some would label it. In reality, though, here he was, an attractive (he knew that much about his physique) ninja that decided to go back to being a jonin a few weeks ago (being an ANBU was just too tiring), so where were all attractive females that kept throwing themselves at him, like they did in Jiraiya-sensei's book? None, nada, exactly ZE-RO. Instead, he was sitting here, completely alone, before _a four-years-old _decided to join him. Yep, that's what he got for all these years of hard work: some loudmouth kid instead of hot females - not that he was interested in pursuing any, for that matter, it was only to boost his ego. Bah, he _knew _that he sounded like some creepy old man, but he just couldn't help himself; instead, he blamed his own bad traits on Icha Icha series.

"Tsss, don't shout about it!" Naruto whispered angrily and quickly turned his head around, making sure that no one heard Kakashi's words; he didn't need more glances from adults who thought of him as a low-life as it was - making them think that he going mental wasn't going to make situation any better. "Yeah, I don't think that he's going to harm me, though. He sounded really nice and friendly."

"Mmm-hmm, and so do paedophiles," Kakashi whispered under his nose and took another shot of sake, his vision becoming a blur and he practically slurred his next words - he was already half-drunk when Naruto arrived here and began waving his arms and shouting something like 'wake up' and 'I have to tell you about something huuuge'. Well, that's what he got for being so close with boy's godfather, though receiving sighed copies of Icha Icha before anyone else was a big bonus which made him get used to the idea of having some white-haired kid around himself. "But Naruto, you should understand that it can't be Shinigami: he's the God of Death. He can't be captivated within some human."

"You think that I'm _that _stupid, Pervert Kakashi?!" came boy's response, which made Naruto eyes widen and he quickly covered his mouth with his hands. He didn't mean to let Kakashi know about the name that he has given him inside his head. Not that he was afraid of punishment - after all, Kakashi wasn't the one to talk or gossip, especially if it concerned telling some that some four-years-old called him a pervert _right to his face._ The worst case scenario was Jiji finding out, and that wasn't so bad, too. Maybe, a week or so without ramen, no big deal.

Oh, God. What had he done.

"If I was a bit more sober," Kakashi finally let out with a hiccup, "I would have simply turned around and left you alone, calling you a freak or something. But because your godfather writes my favourite series and I don't want to get on his bad side by stealing you away and leaving you in the middle of a big forest, I will ignore it. Just this once, though."

Naruto waved his hand as if it wasn't a big deal, though his insides were screaming 'yahoo' and 'finally having Jiji as my old man led to something besides constant beating from females'. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you going to help me, then? What can it be, if it's not a Shinigami?"

Kakashi clicked his tongue and ran his fingers through his hair, which made his grey locks look even messier than before. Ladies would call it 'bed hair', but he resorted to referring to it as a 'I'm-really-drunk-and-I-probably-fell-down-my-chair-a-few-times' hair.

There were a few possible explanations as to what this could mean. He was one of the few who were informed of everything that has happened before and after the Nine-Tails was sealed off inside Naruto, so he knew of what the present Hokage - Sandaime-sama - saw, and that was Shinigami being sealed off inside Naruto along with the demon fox because his own teacher made a few mistakes in hand seals. The council even forced Hokage to run a few tests on Naruto when he was as young as seven months since his birth. Some of them were nasty, and some of them were completely harmless, but they didn't detect anything that was wrong with Naruto, apart from the fact that... he didn't have any chakra and there was a big, black hole inside him.

That said 'hole' was sucking in every bit of chakra that his body was producing, from what a group of Hyuugas could tell, but they weren't completely certain. It seemed that Shinigami was consuming Naruto's chakra, but for what reason? Did the Death God need chakra in order to survive? No one truly knew, for no one has encountered real gods in the last hundred or so years, apart from calling Shinigami via a very specific jutsu.

So maybe there _was_ a Death God inside this kid, and maybe he _was_ beginning to communicate with Naruto through their mental link, but who knew? Maybe all of it was Naruto's vivid imagination. Maybe the Shinigami got away long ago, and only left a small portion of his power behind. Only time and patience will provide answers to those questions, that's what Kakashi thought.

There was also a possibility that it was all Kyuubi's fault, and, instead of showing himself to the poor kid, he decided to communicate with him by pretending to be someone else and thus gaining his trust.

"Perhaps, you felt lonely and your brain decided to create an imaginary friend for ya," was his final response and blinked a few times to stay awake. He knew that it was incredibly tough and unfair to the kid, but Jiraiya, Sarutobi and the other old men in the council prohibited him - and the rest of the village, for that matter - from telling Naruto about the Nine-Tails, or even mentioning it. The Academy and other civilian schools weren't allowed to teach their students about the attack four-and-a-half years ago; council made sure that no history book included this incident, and to a by-passer it would look like the village decided to hide its biggest spider under the rug, pretending it wasn't there although most were aware of it and were told to simply ignore it. When asked about what happened to the Fourth Hokage, parents would patiently explain to their children that he died on a mission. _This _was the kind of mess that Konoha got itself into.

"I'm serious! And if so, why didn't _your _brain decide to create a bunch of imaginary friends for you, seeing as you don't have any?"

"Touché," Hatake replied with a smirk and even put his hand over the place where his heart was. "I was hurt right into my heart and don't think that I will ever recover and live a normal life again."

Naruto frowned and tucked white strands of his hair behind his ear - it was getting in the way and he just had to have a haircut, though finding a good barber was rather problematic. Maybe he will have to do what he did last time he need a haircut and Jiji refused to pay for it, claiming that he could do it for him better than any barber. Rather annoyed with his old man, Naruto stole kunai from Jiraiya's pouch and cut his own hair, to the latter's terror. The front of his bangs looked absolutely awful and he had to wear a hat for a few weeks to keep people from staring at him any more than they already were.

"I don't think that you take me seriously, Ka-ka-shi, so I will have to find someone else to talk to about it," Naruto said with a sigh and was just about to leave when he felt steps right behind him and then someone sat on the free chair right next to him. The young boy didn't think that he even needed to turn his head, for his peripheral vision already picked up on the bright-green colour. "Gai-san!"

"Naruto-kun, long time no see!" he exclaimed with the widest smile anyone could master, which earned him a few side glances but he didn't seem to notice them - or he simply didn't care. "I was passing by when I saw you two sitting here like best friends and chatting without me. Now, it is my duty to find what you were talking about and join you! Kakashi, what were you talking about?"

Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes and decided to play safe, "We were just talking about how amazing your green jumpsuit is and how Naruto wants to get a hold of one, but he can't seem to find his size."

"Oh, is that so?" Gai asked with a sincere concern in his voice and then patted Naruto's head in a fatherly manner. "But worry not, Naruto-kun, I will look around and I will find you one of these jumpsuits, or I'm not Maito Gai! And if I won't find any, I will make it myself!"

Naruto gave him the look that would make anyone uncomfortable, but apparently not him. The boy liked Kakashi's 'rival' – in fact, sometimes he asked his godfather to hang around with Gai whenever Jiraiya left for missions and was looking for someone that would babysit Naruto, never mind the fact that Gai has turned eighteen not that long ago. Then again, he was the best option in all categories: he wasn't a pervert and a drunk head like Kakashi was, he wasn't always busy with paperwork like Sarutobi was, and, in the end of the day, he was more responsible than most babysitters in Konoha.

And as much as Naruto wanted that green jumpsuit (damn, it would make him look so great and strong!), he didn't find the needed support from Kakashi, so he had to look for someone else. There weren't many adults that he knew besides these four, plus Inoichi and Noriko – oh, and the owner of Ichiraku: the old man which should have won the award for being the nicest guy years ago. Seriously, he was like a saint!

He jumped up from his seat and, blabbering something about going back and checking how's Jiji doing, left the place in a hurry. As always, he had to concentrate on his task at hand and not on the jerks that kept throwing dirty glances at him; he noted long ago that most of them were young mums and it made no sense whatsoever. Did he do something to their kids? Seriously, what was their problem?

As he was nearing the Ichiraku stand, Naruto thought about other adults he knew, Fugaku and Mikoto – Sasuke's parents; he could recall Mikoto dropping buy a few times in the last year, but only for a tea and she usually left in a hurry. She only brought her husband with her once, and Naruto hoped that she never did it again: the guy was the equivalent of an ice cube! Forget what he said about baka-Sasuke and his stuck-up attitude, he could clearly see who Sasuke picked up on! Oh, he wished that Sasuke was more like his older brother – he was so gallant and nice to everyone, always holding back what he really thought, but because he was so strong no one dared to say a bad word about him. And Naruto liked it! He wished people around him were more like Itachi.

But there was no way in hell he was going to Uchiha's district and seeking out Sasuke's parents! Mikoto was so gentle and understanding, so she would probably help him, but what about her husband? He was probably off to work by now, but Naruto didn't want to try his luck. Besides, in order to reach Sasuke's house, he would have to pass by many Uchiha compounds, which meant evil looks from a lot of Uchihas.

"Hiya, old man, got some ramen for me?" he shouted at the top of his lungs and landed on the only free seat: today seemed to be a busy day for Ichiraku.

"Sure thing, Naruto," Teuchi said with a thumb-up and turned his back to him. "The usual, right?"

"Yep," Naruto replied with a wide smile and began waving his legs and looking around for familiar faces. To his utter disappointment, there were none: everyone seemed to be quite busy lately, and he supposed that it had something to do with the upcoming chuunin exams. Heck, he was excited about seeing them, too! Jiji promised to take him there, but only if he behaved.

"Did he really say that?" he overheard someone say but didn't turn his head, instead listening as inconspicuously as he could and looking straight. "Fuck, he keeps treating us like dirt!"

"Not only us – the Uchihas, too. Have you heard of the recent conflict between the head of Uchiha clan and Sandaime?" another man said with a dark chuckle. "Trust me, it was _something_! I swear, if there wasn't a bunch of ANBUs standing nearby, they would have already attacked each other. I wonder what that bastard Fugaku is going to do about it… and don't even get me started on his older son! So I have a friend in ANBU and he told me that Itachi treats everyone like shit, completely ignoring their request, and only listening to what Ibiki and Danzo say. It's crazy, I'm telling ya. If it continues like this, _I _will be the one that ends those arrogant Uchihas-"

"Shhh, don't be so loud! What if someone overhears you? If Sarutobi finds out, you will be most likely captured and you know damn well who's in charge of Konoha's police…"

"Yeah, these Sharingan-obsessed dogs… I don't care who hears me, us Hyuugas are much stronger than Uchihas. Who do they think they are, practically wiping Hokage's ass, patiently waiting for the day when he allows them to take control over the whole village?"

"Now you are just being crazy…"

"Say what you want, but if it continues like this – and remember my words, Uchihas will make their best to get on Hokage's side after recent incident – Sandaime will say something like, 'Well, you have been a great help and I think that you should own this village now.' Or something. I wonder if it's old age that made him so soft."

"And what did Hiashi-san have to say about it? I wasn't present on yesterday's meeting."

"Oh, you know him. He just blabbered about how the main branch should keep together and be strict on the other branches. Nothing new here, exploitation and inequality right there!"

Naruto looked away when the two men shifted and, putting a wrinkly bill on the table and thanking the chef, slowly left. The boy could only look over his shoulder when he was sure that they were gone, his mind buzzing with what has just occurred. Surely it was all just talking without actions, right? Sure, he knew the pure basics of Konoha's history, just as he knew about two clans that were always on edge with each other, but wasn't this a bit too much?

Should he tell someone about what he just heard or was it really all harmless?

Many years passed since Hyuugas and Uchihas went into war and killed as many members of the other clan as they could. Naruto naively supposed that it was just history now, covered in dust and hidden somewhere, so as not to harm others. He tried imagining what it would be like if the two clans decided to go into war with each other once again, and shuddered. The mere thought made him sick: no, surely that wouldn't happen, what with Sarutobi around and everything, right?

"Here is your miso, Naruto," Ichiraku's owner finally said with a wide smile and put a bowl right in front of Naruto. When he didn't hear an excited 'yoshaa, this is the best meal ever, itadakimas', Teuchi raised his eyebrow. "Naruto, is something bothering you?"

The latter only shook his head and stretched his arm to pick up a pair of chopsticks from a wooden cup. "Well, yeah, but you are busy right now."

"You can ask me anything you want, you know that, right? And you can share whatever it is that is bothering you."

Naruto huffed and divided his chopsticks, "If… if you have time during lunch break."

Teuchi nodded and about two hours later he sat opposite Naruto and began carefully listening to his story, occasionally nodding and asking questions.

xxxx

The fireworks turned out to be amazing. Naruto hasn't been to many of them before, so attending one was a big treat; well, that and ice-cream that he was happily eating now – all thanks to Jiji.

He sat on the hill and looked up, with bright green, blue and red reflecting in his dreamy eyes. It was moments like this that he didn't think about the hating gazes on his back, and thoughts like 'just tell them that you are Hokage's son' plagued his mind. Jiraiya told him about a year ago that he can't tell others who are his real parents, though he didn't elaborate why. Maybe it was because public would laugh at him, not believing his words and claiming that Yondaime didn't have a son? Or maybe it was to keep him safe from jealous kids who wished to have parents like his? Still, he was sure that if only he were to tell others about his real parents, they would stop mocking him, and the hatred will stop.

Oh, and there was also that bastard Sasuke. The said guy, by the way, sat a few meters away from him with his family, with his back turned towards Naruto; unlike the majority, he kept absolutely quiet and stared at the skies without talking to anyone. Not that Naruto was staring or anything.

"Oi, Naruto, we didn't see you today," he heard someone say behind him, so Naruto looked over his shoulder and smirked.

"I'm sure you spent the majority of the day eating in one of the take-outs," he replied with a chuckle and barely dodged the hit that was going his way. He almost dropped his ice-cream in the process, and yelled at Choji for almost making him drop his treat. "Hey, do you know how much this ice-cream costs?!"

"Certainly less than the amount of meat that Choji consumed today," Kiba snickered in response but began quickly waving his hands in front of his face, defending himself from Akimichi's angry gaze. "I'm just joking, just toking! Eat as much meat as you want!"

Naruto snickered and quickly finished off eating his ice-cream. He then stood up and him and Kiba began running from angry Choji, leaving a tired and annoyed Shikamaru behind.

The two of them kept running without looking back, and it wasn't long before they reached the quiet part of the city with small alleyways; besides, most people were out in the park, watching fireworks and spending their free time with their loved ones. At the cross, Kiba waved at Naruto and signalled him that he was turning right and motioned Naruto to turn leftwards. The latter one nodded and did as he was told, not stopping for a second – he enjoyed living and didn't want to dispose of his own life any time soon, thank you very much!

However, it wasn't long before Naruto began slowing down and looking around. He knew most of the small alleyways in Konoha, and this one wasn't an exception, but sometimes he got lost in them – like right now. He forced himself to stop and look around, but there were four possible directions. Which one was he going to-

Before he had time to finish his thought, he was abruptly kicked right into his back and he fell to the ground without having to chance to stretch out his arms.

Naruto looked over his shoulder, but that 'someone' kicked him in the face before he got the chance to see his attacker. He coughed and tried grabbing his opponent's leg; all was fruitless – the unknown person kept hitting him over and over again.

"You are a demonic bastard and you should know your place!"

Oh, so it was one of the guys who hated him just because he had horns… The boy was used to been sneered at and people who threw evil glances at him just because of his horns, but that was usually as far as it went: most people were too afraid to lay a finger at him because they knew of his godfather and what he was capable of. The very few, however, that were stupid enough to attack him from time to time usually kicked him a few times and ran away, while he never mentioned it to Jiraiya: he was no snitch.

This, however… this was on the whole other level. This was a full-time beating which he didn't think he deserved in the least. Sure, he wasn't the quiet and nice type, and he would occasionally burst out and shout at people for being so arrogant and rude, but he felt that this beating wasn't about that. No, he was only hit because he was different.

Hit. Another. Again.

The beating continued for another fifteen minutes or so with that guy – and his pals, it seems – hitting his back with their shoes. They didn't even hold him down – and there was no need to, after all, for their hitting was harsh enough to make him lay on the ground and move as little as possible.

Naruto coughed and could no longer control his own arms and legs. The fingers on his right hand kept trembling when he tried to clench them into a fist; his left hand felt absolutely numb, for one of these bastards stepped on it and kept denting it to the ground. The boy couldn't miss the sound of his fingers cracking, and he knew that it wasn't possible, but he could swear that he could feel his blood slowly seeping out of his left hand.

Strong metallic smell hit his nose just as he felt his eyesight blur, and Naruto wanted to choke once again: four-years-olds weren't used to the smell of blood, and he was no exception.

He didn't whine or cry out for help, not anymore. He couldn't find it in himself to struggle anymore, so he simply laid there and felt as his blue eyes began to slowly close.

"A freak with white hair and horns! Demon!"

It took him a few seconds to realise that there was a trail of blood running down his cheek, and by that time he was already on a verge of fainting. There was no one around that would help him, even if he still had power to shout.

'I can help you.'

That voice again… Naruto closed his eyes as tightly as he could and called out for Shinigami.

'How can you help me? You are inside me, so you can't attack them, right?'

'That's true but I can control your body for you and beat them to a bloody pulp. How would you like that?'

'Jiji said that I shouldn't-'

'Forget what your old man said – there isn't a better alternative than to answer to hatred with hate. We don't live in a loving a peaceful world, kid – it's full of pain and suffering and the best we can do is fight right back instead of taking the blow and not hitting back. In a fight, you hit your opponent, right? You should do the same thing in your life. You should fight without holding back, because the moment you do… you are dead.'

Naruto's eyelids lowered, his mind buzzing with whether or not he should allow some God – actually, the Death God himself – to take over his body. The darker side of his mind finally awoke and had no intentions of leaving him alone, whispering awful thing into his ear.

_But you want them to suffer. You want them to pay for this beating. Why do they get to get away with it over and over again? And what if their beating will result in you not being able to use one of your limbs anymore? Or worse, you will be in come? Is this what you want? Be a 'nice guy' and allow them to continue their stupid and pathetic lives like they didn't just beat the hell out of some innocent boy? Is that what you want?_

No. He didn't want that. He wanted to become stronger and become like his Jiji, so his future plans didn't include being beaten up by a group of some messed up kids.

The boy opened his eyes, his lips barely moving.

"You can take… over my body…"

Shinigami smirked to himself, because everything was going as he planned. It was lucky of him to be able to communicate with Namikaze Naruto when he was still so young as so easy to persuade. The Death God didn't doubt that if their 'connection' formed much later, it would lead to inevitable consequences - for both of them. Maybe - just maybe - he didn't need to kill the kid in order to get out. Oh, yeah, he could work with this...

"For now, sleep, Namikaze Naruto. You need to rest..."

When he woke up an hour or so later, he was surrounded by a pile of unconscious bodies, all of them beaten up so much that Naruto doubted they would be able to move any time soon. Not having enough power to get up, he decided to close his eyes and lay there for a little longer, his mind completely ignoring the burning in his knuckles that were used to nearly kill those kids.

xxxx

A/N: Ya, as you can see, in my Naruto-verse humans need chakra to survive, which makes the whole 'chakra-drained' concept mega serious, and can eventually lead to death.

I like it this way.

P.S. I wrote the end of this chapter while listening to 'SNK – XL-TT (Colossal Titan Theme)'. It's pure goodness, guys, but I'm sure most people are already aware of it.

Reviews are always appreciated and welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

Have I mentioned that English isn't my first language? (It's actually my third, so there you go, if you were wondering why my grammar so is bad… maybe one day I will find myself a beta lol)

Also, I'm a sap and I want to cuddle lil' Naruto so much during this chapter it's getting unbearable hngggg I should resist this urge (I wanna cuddle little Armin and Eren just as much, fyi)

xxxx

Chapter Three

Naruto was only allowed to leave the hospital 7 days later. He packed his things with Jiji's help and, stealing a few pillows from a room opposite his own, left without saying a word to nurses who treated him during his stay in the hospital.

As they walked home, he could feel his old man's gaze drilling holes in his back, but he didn't look over his shoulder to ask what's wrong. Somehow, Jiraiya always knew what was wrong, but it was rare for him to start questioning Naruto. In occasions where he did, Naruto became increasingly defensive and kept repeating 'it's fine, it's fine' when it was obvious to anyone that everything wasn't fine.

He realised that he still didn't tell Jiji about the voice in his head, but maybe now wasn't the best time: he would just start saying that it's the result of concussion and won't pay much attention to it afterwards. Well, either that, or he was going to assume that Naruto was going crazy – which he wasn't, dammit!

"So," Jiraiya casually began a few seconds later with his hands tucked safely in his front pockets, "that nurse was hot, wasn't she?"

Naruto resisted the urge to sputter but he couldn't stop himself from stopping in his tracks and looking over at Jiji in disbelieve. Really? That's all he wanted to talk about?

"Stop being a pervert, old man," he said at last and made a face. "If you won't, I'll make sure there's a rumour that you have weird dreams about older women."

Now it was the time for Jiraiya to sputter and he looked at the kid in front of him like he was Satan's son and it wasn't him that raised Naruto for the last four-and-a-half years. Though, one would say that the Legendary Sannin deserved such treatment, for he himself talked about porn way too much. In front of a small kid.

Sigh. What would Tsunade think of him?

"If you do that, I won't give you pocket money for a month."

"Heeeh?"

"You know the rules, kid."

Naruto frowned and turned around, continuing his walk all the while mumbling something under his nose. Jiraiya looked at his messy white hair and defensive stance, and thought that, yeah, it was the right time to bring _that _topic up. He still didn't know how to propose the idea, though, because Naruto was, most likely, going to be extra hyper and won't listen to any of his words after that. The alternative was the little brat demanding Jiraiya to teach him everything right that moment.

Oh, why, _why _did Naruto have to inherit his mother's character, instead of having his dad's calm and generous nature?

"I was thinking," he said carefully, because it seemed that he already broke the ice with his previous words, "perhaps… you want to start learning jutsu?"

"Yeah, yeah, as if you would teach me jutsu."

Now Jiraiya was the one to frown – eh? Where was all the excitement, all the happiness on Naruto's face? Did he really seem like such a lazy-ass that he wouldn't teach someone who resembled a son to him? Yeah, he was busy most of the time, as there were rumours of some criminal organisation becoming stronger and gaining more members with each day.

"I was planning to, actually," he amended himself and his next words caused Naruto to shout in surprise. "Especially some of the techniques that your parents used."

"Seriously?!" This time Naruto not only turned around, but also began jumping in joy and even grabbed Jiraiya's hand, looking up at Sannin in sincere gratitude. "That would mean the world to me! I'm sure my parents knew some awesome techniques, right, right?"

"Yeah, a bunch," he said with a smirk because Naruto had _no _idea how much this bunch was, even if he only took Kushina's techniques into account. It was sad, really, that he couldn't tell Naruto about how truly amazing his mother was – that she had the Nine-Tails sealed off inside her, yet she managed to fall in love and live a relatively normal life until her death. In his opinion, Kushina was even stronger – not technique-wise, mind you – in almost every aspect. But, he knew he couldn't do it just yet – maybe in sever or so years, when he was old enough to understand the implications behind this sort of heritage, and when it was a time to tell him of what resides inside him and makes him so different from the rest. "I know I haven't told you much about your parents-"

"More life nothing at all," Naruto complained with an eye-roll.

"-but do you have any technique in mind? Pick one."

"Hmm." Naruto looked rather concentrated for a minute or so as he scratched his back and thought of some cool technique that he would absolutely love to learn. There weren't many he knew, per se, so he picked the one he heard about from Choji. "Nikudan Sensha! I want to be able to roll my opponent over like he's a steak or something!"

"Human bullet tank? That's the best you could come up with?" Jiraiya gave out with a sigh and raised his eyebrow. To be honest, he expect at least an A-rank technique, but maybe the kid didn't know many techniques because the Legendary Sannin didn't tell him that much about them, and Naruto only learned to read eight or so months ago, and said straight away that he isn't going to read, unless he gets a reward for it. Back then, Jiraiya only shrugged and left the room, saying something along the lines of 'I don't really care if you read or not'. "Besides, this technique can't be used by people outside of Akimichi clan, and there a lot of other techniques that cannot be used by ninjas outside of specific clans."

"Seriously? What's the point of becoming a ninja if I can't learn every technique there is, then?" the blond said with a little whine but he perked up a few seconds later. "Okay, if you can't teach me that, I want you to teach me some other cool technique. Like the one you use to call frogs!"

"It's called the 'Summoning Technique', baka," Jiraiya replied on the second thought. "And those aren't frogs – they are called toads. You should know that by know, Gaki – haven't you hewar how people referred to me as a Toad Sage?"

"Toads, frogs – what's the difference?"

What's the difference, indeed.

"And no one calls you that, except for yourself, Jiji. They just occasionally add honorifics to your name or call you a 'Sannin'. But you know what, old man, one day people in Konoha – and from all over the world will begin referring to me as a kick-ass Sannin, even better than you!"

"Maybe one day they will, Gaki, but people won't know about you if you aren't able to even use some D-ranked techniques," was Jiraiya's response as he picked Naruto up and put him on his shoulders – much to the latter's dismay. Naruto kept shaking his legs and tried to get off Jiraiya's shoulders, but it was to no use: Sannin kept a good hold of his legs and didn't allow to as much as move himself.

"Put me down, old man, I'm not a toddler!"

"Mm-hmm, that's what they all say but in fact, they act and look like real toddlers." Jiraiya gave out a dry laugh as the Konoha's loudest kid began scratching his face and kicking his chest with his legs in order to get out. He walked down the street and only smirked at the glances people were throwing them. Some of them – usually young civilian mothers and women – didn't like it one bit and kept whispering something to each other, but Jiraiya didn't need to hear it to know what they were saying to each other. When Naruto was a mere kid, he heard _enough _about the so-called 'demon child' from parents who knew nothing about the Kyuubi that was sealed off inside the poor kid. He suspected that being teased because of horns and white hair was much better than if people knew that there was a tailed beast inside him, yet their acid words still made him cringe and turn at the first opportunity that he got, right into a small alleyway with barely any people.

There was a bunch of kids, most of them the same age as Naruto, and they stopped playing football when they saw a tall and 'intimidating' man carrying a kid on his shoulders. They stared at the whole picture in awe and one of them began calling out for his father, asking him to do the same thing for him. Jiraiya patted that kid on the head – it was nice to know that some kids were still innocent and didn't care if Naruto was a bit different from them.

He continued walking until they reached the training grounds – the whole trip took him approximately thirty minutes and would have been much faster if Gaki stopped kicking him and trying to get out for even a second. He hasn't been to Konoha's training grounds before – there was no need in it, really – so he whistled to himself because the place didn't change, dammit. It looked exactly the same back when he was training his group of genins, and it was almost identical when he was a genin himself and Sarutobi Hiruzen was still a jonin.

"Okay, now we can begin our training." Jiraiya allowed Naruto to escape his tight hold and the latter one felt to the ground with a loud 'thumb'. "Now, you are going to enter the Academy quite soon – in about five months, actually – and Academy's teachers will teach you all that you need to know about chakra and the likes. I know that it's boring, and you will be taught about this later on anyway, so our training sessions will only be about practical stuff and a pinch of explanation. How does that sound like?"

"Okay, let's do it, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted and threw his fist into the air, standing in a supposedly kick-ass pose. "So where do we begin? Do I get to create clones and attack you with them? Or do I learn to create genjutsu?"

"Hold your horses, Gaki. Let's begin with…" Jiraiya looked around and snickered at the idea that popped up in his head. "Naruto, let's go near that lake."

"Huh? Will you teach me how to control water? Cooool!" he shouted out at the top of his lungs and ran towards the lake, like he was told. He then stopped a few centimetres away from it and looked down, staring at his reflection in water. If only he looked like the other kids… maybe if his hair was like his dad's – blonde and ruffled. And if he could somehow get rid of those horns…

"Now, the first jutsu that you are going to learn… walk on water!"

Naruto didn't know of hows and whys, but one second he was studying his own reflection and the next he was coughing and floundering about, gasping for air. It didn't take him long to swim up and take a few deep and deliberate breath, all the while throwing evil glances at his old man. Gee, he could have died if he didn't know how to swim! And what if he lost his consciousness and wasn't able to swim up? Would Jiji use his Summoning technique and call up a toad or two?

He shivered at the memory of seeing one of Jiraiya's 'friends' last time: the toad – Gamabunta – almost squished him to death because apparently the damn toad 'didn't see him there'. Gamabunta turned out to be _huge _– and not huge like a building, he was really, really huge. Naruto couldn't wait to be able to summon someone just as big, though he didn't see it happening any time soon: Jiji specifically told him that no sane summoning creature would want to get involved with some four-years-old.

"Okay, now all you have to do is push chakra into your hands and legs and try to stand on water. Easy-peasy."

Easier said than done! Sure, Jiraiya told him about chakra and chakra control before, but talking was as far as it went! How the heck was he going to figure this one out?! Naruto closed his eyes.

'Right, concentrate,' he thought to himself and put his hands on water's surface, thinking about his inner energy and pushing it into his hands. He didn't feel anything – not a spark or some sort of energy burst – and when he opened his eyes and pushed his palms down, they dived right back in to water without any resistance. He huffed, any tried it again… and again and again, and he was visibly shivering fifteen minutes later, because the water was _freezing_, never mind the warm weather outside, and he barely moved since he was thrown into this lake.

He looked up at his old man, obviously being confused and not knowing what to do next, but Jiraiya didn't seem to have any answers. On the very contrary, he was deep in thoughts and even began scratching his chin. Naruto was sure that it wasn't a good sign.

"A lot of kids can't do it, even if they try for weeks," Jiraiya said at last and took a few steps forward. Naruto's eyes widened when he just as easily stepped on water and began walking towards him, as if he was still stepping on the ground. "I don't know why, but I thought that this will be something you will be able to perform right away, seeing as you are always sneaking out of your room through the window and somehow get to the first floor without using the stairs. And we live on the sixth floor!"

"Seriously? Weeks?" Naruto asked apprehensively and began swimming towards the training grounds. "Then it should be fine, right? I will have plenty of time to learn it!"

The Legendary Sannin nodded, but he still seemed unsure. Instead of saying anything, he managed to pick up the boy and walk towards the training grounds much quicker. He then let go of Naruto's jacket, which made the latter one fall to the ground, and squatted in front of him, staring right into boy's eyes.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Naruto said jokingly and began touching his face. "Oh, I know – it's because of the whisker marks! Do you want to have them as well? I have a few sharpies, so I can-"

Jiraiya put his thumb, index finger and middle finger together and then touched boy's chest with it, sending a small shot of chakra right through his body to test something. Unless the body that the person was sending chakra into was dead, that small chakra sparkle usually dissolved within person's body within seconds. He frowned even harder when the very chakra that he sent into Naruto's body came right back, entering his body via his fingers once again. The Toad Sage took his hand away and looked down at it.

So, Naruto wasn't dead – that much he could tell by his rapid pulse and erratic breathing, all due to his earlier 'bath time' in the river. The only other option was one of those people who weren't able to use chakra; in fact, it was Kakashi's friend – Gai, wasn't it? – was in a similar situation, only he was able to use chakra whenever he decided to open the Gates inside him. His inability to control chakra meant that, instead of a steady flow, it was racing inside him like a bunch of ping-pong balls being thrown around and constantly hitting each other, thus resuming their bouncing. As a result, Naruto's chakra would be unable to take in his own chakra, and only throw it right back at him.

But why was that? Gai was an exception – he wasn't like the majority, and Jiraiya could honestly admit that he never met someone who had no control over his chakra before meeting him. Therefore, Naruto was something else… was it because of the Nine-Tails and the Shinigami that resided within his body? Did they have full control over boy's whole chakra system? It frightened Jiraiya that it was the potential truth; what if Naruto was never able to use chakra since the day he was born, and was never able to use it again – not if the Death God and the demon fox were sealed off inside him?

"Alright, let's try and do something else," Jiraiya said at last and so they continued with their training.

xxxx

He couldn't stop thinking about how he completely failed his old man during their training.

Instead of being a bad-ass, like he had wanted, and showing perfect chakra control, Naruto completely failed in using _any _sort of chakra, to his utter disappointment; Jiraiya didn't seem as displeased with him, only confused. But still, not a million years did he think that he wouldn't be able to show even a minimal chakra control! Jiji told him that, although he had some chakra inside him, he seemed to be the type who wasn't able to control it, but he reassured Naruto by saying that it's not the end of the world.

How could he possibly say that – he, the almighty Legendary Sannin who fought in so many battles, killed so many people and all of that to protect what he loved? Did Naruto have to give up on his dream of becoming as strong as him someday? But how can fate be so cruel to him?

He asked Jiraiya to stay behind for a few hours. Jiraiya only shrugged, telling him not to over-work himself, and left without saying another word. He looked worried, that much Naruto could tell, but he had to figure it out on his own.

The boy stopped thinking about that voice inside his head after what happened on the fireworks' night, and he spent the last seven days messing around the hospital and mixing everything; basically, he was the usual him. Now, however, if there was even a slightest possibility that the Shinigami would help him like he did back then…

'Oi, Shiniga- Shinigami-sama, I need your help!'

There was no response, so Naruto huffed and began silently calling out for the supposedly 'Death God' again and again.

Eventually, he could feel something – it was as if someone was tickling his brain with a feather. He began giggling and scratching his head, though it was absolutely pointless: the tickling only stopped when Shinigami made himself known.

'If you want to talk to me, you will have to enter your own mind and explore it,' said the voice loud and clear. "Close your eyes and I will lead you."

Naruto did as he was told, squeezing his eyes shut and laying down just in case he was going to faint while he and that… creature had a talk. A moment later he felt like someone was pulling at his sub consciousness and, after a second thought, he decided to give in, pushing in the same direction, although the term 'pushing' didn't have an impact in your mind – it was more of a… drifting in that direction.

Everything around the boy was black, no matter how many times his inner self blinked and rubbed his eyes. He tried walking and shouting – and maybe he was, but this overpowering darkness made him feel like he wasn't doing anything at all. Like he was just standing there, completely unmoving and emotionless.

Then, everything changed because he felt like his jacket and trousers were soaking wet. Did he regain his consciousness? Well, there is only one way to find out.

He slowly forced his eyelids to lift, and when they did, Naruto realised that he was, indeed, laying down, but not on the mossy training ground; instead, he found himself laying on the dirty floor in some dimly-lit corridor. He pushed himself up, but struggled to stand straight, his whole body still shaking from his sudden 'transportation' here. He coughed a few times and spit, finally looking down; the whole corridor was filled with water that was making the dirt stick to his trousers and shoes.

Naruto tried to wipe the dirt off his cheek, but he could still feel that some of it was there. Whatever, it's not like he was going to see anyone from the real world here, anyway. After taking off his shoes and throwing them away, for they were fully soaked and kept sticking to his feet, Naruto began walking straight, looking around. Just a big corridor with dark-green walls that were obviously chipping. He came up to one of the doors and tried opening it, but to no vain, so he kept going straight and looking around, hoping to see an open door.

Eventually, he felt like something was pulling him forward, so he followed that invisible force and soon found himself entering the only room around that was open. Right away, Naruto saw golden bars with some sort of a seal in the middle – was there something hidden in that cage? However, he didn't have time to dwell on this question, for he heard a series of steps behind him and swiftly turned around, his hands clenching into fists.

He could almost feel his jaw dropping when he saw that 'someone' who was following him. If this creature wasn't a God, then Naruto had no idea how real Gods looked like because, surely, there wasn't anyone more magnificent than this?! Dressed in long robes, with white hair, black eyes, red horns and a devilish smile, Shinigami was good few meters taller than Naruto, and the Death God was looking down at the boy as if he was a mere toddler.

"Wow," Naruto couldn't help but give out which caused Shinigami to smile even wider, revealing his fangs to the boy. "So you are the voice in my head… the God of Death?"

"Hai," the God replied truthfully and to Naruto, this voice was even deeper than the one he heard only a week ago. This voice carried more weight within it – this was the voice that belonged to a God. "Namikaze Naruto, I've been watching you."

"Everyone is calling me Uzumaki, though," the boy amended quietly, still in trance from the God in front of him. If someone told him a month or so ago that he will one day casually talk to the Death God, he would have probably kicked the idiot that sputtered such nonsense. Now, however, all he wanted to do was to jump up and scream 'yoshaa I'm talking to a real God, dattebayo!'

Nevertheless, he still had some doubts about the whole 'the Death God is inside my head and is talking to me' thing, so he had to ask, just to make sure. "You're not the product of my imagination, right?"

Shinigami scoffed, "Even if I say 'no', you will just assume that's what your brain would have told you, too. If I say 'yes', you will probably start hitting yourself against the nearby wall and call out for Jiraiya to release you from thins genjutsu."

Naruto blinked a few times. "How do you know what I was planning to do?"

"I watched you long enough to know your character and I can safely say what you will do next in any given situation at any time," the Death God replied soon and he was no longer smiling. He took a few steps closer and gave Naruto a look that the latter didn't understand one bit; was he angry with Naruto? Was he genuinely interested in what he was doing here? Was he pissed off? Did Gods even get pissed off?

"Why did you decide to show yourself?" Naruto asked in all seriousness. As far as he could recall, the last time they talked Shinigami told him straight away that he didn't want to show himself for the time being.

Instead of giving him a reply, Shinigami picked him up, his hands on both sides of the small human's body, and looked into his eyes. The boy held back the shudder from staring into God's black eyes that were piercing his own; for half a second Naruto thought that these very eyes could consume his soul, but this was stupid, right? Shinigami had to perform a series of seals or something in order to consume a soul.

"I have never had a chance to look at you after you were born," Shinigami said in that husky and deep voice of his. He carefully studied boy's face and paid extra attention to his head. "I'm not surprised that you resemble me, but a human version, although I don't have a single idea why you still have these whisker marks."

"Oh, them? I always had them. I remember seeing an album with my and Jiji's pictures in it, and I had whisker marks even when I was a baby… Dunno why, though, cause my Mum and Dad never had them."

"It's not about your family and their heritage, silly human," Shinigami chucked darkly, his eyes mischievously glistering. "You don't know why you have them because no one bothered to tell you the full truth about your parents and what you really are, Namikaze Naruto – the human child that will one day change shinobi world and will get rid of the vomit and piss that people keep pouring into it. But, everything has a price and you will have to do something for me."

Boy looked eager to find out more, so he vigorously nodded, "If it means that I will find out more about my parents… Jiji refuses to tell me much about them, and I don't know if I should ask Kakashi about his teacher and his teacher's wife."

"Even if you asked, Hatake Kakashi wouldn't tell you, human child – his mind and history are too complicated for you to understand, for you are still a child and you think like one. Now, what I need from you is to do my job for me while I'm trapped inside your body."

"Wait, but you still didn't tell me why you are sealed inside of me, Shinigami!" Naruto exclaimed, dropping the honorifics and frowning – the euphoria and excitement at seeing a real God were gone, and now that he finally met Shinigami, he wasn't going back without receiving answers, dammit! Not after Kakashi suggested that he was going crazy and he himself made up that voice in his head.

"Let me explain myself before you jump to conclusions," Shinigami said in that powerful voice of his, cutting off everything that Naruto was planning to say. "I am a God, and as a God of Death, I have to make sure that souls of those who pray for me are taken care of. This isn't ideal – believe me, I have thought of it for years and I'm still having my doubts about the whole arrangement – but someone on the outside, even if it's just a kid, has to do my job for me."

"So you can't get out of here?"

"At the moment – no, but I'm working on it. Do you want to find out the whole truth about your parents, all the while repaying me with little favours like this, or do you wish to live for the rest of your life without being enlightened on your true heritage?"

Naruto thought, and Naruto thought hard about the whole arrangement. What did he have to lose, really? Sure, it was the Death God that they were talking about, but if he didn't already kill Naruto, then… he wasn't able to do it any time soon, either, right? He knew that if Jiraiya was here with him, he would have probably kicked Naruto and told him to stop agreeing to everything so recklessly. But what if, after seeing his hesitation, Shinigami decided to do everything on his own? And Naruto won't find out anything about his family.

"Fine, I… I agree to this. You have to explain everything that you want me to do, though – if it's something like going around and killing people-"

"Don't worry, it's nothing like that," Shinigami said and put the boy down. "I wouldn't expect some four-years-old to go as far as to kill random people, all for finding out more about his parents. Sounds like something your human's horror books are made of… But here is what I need of you. I want you to be able to travel a lot and collect souls; I don't expect you to do it on your own and I suppose you can tell someone else about this, but there is range of people that can find out about this. If you go as far as to tell Jiraiya, the present Hokage or anyone from the council, I will break off our arrangement and you will never get to find out things about your parents that even their closest friends didn't know about.

"The process of collecting a soul isn't as awful as it sounds like. As you are probably quite aware, things outside of Konoha aren't as peaceful, and other villages constantly enter wars, killing for the sake of killing, but covering their desire for blood with things like 'more territory' and 'more money'. Although it has been almost five years since the Fourth Great Shinobi War, it is still happening all over the world. But the thing is, there are plenty of people who come to the battlefield not because they want to fight for their country, but because they were forced to by their Kages and, in some cases, threatened.

"Whenever things like this happen and the said person dies, their soul is left without peace, wandering between life and death, but never reaching any of them. Thus, it is only generous of me to consume their souls, and I always did so before being sealed off inside you. Now, however, there is little to no chance that I can do it, so the best you can do is get rid of these souls."

"How do I get rid of them?" the boy asked after a few minutes of deep thinking. This stuff was still too confusing to him, but the idea that he was going to put these souls at peace made him happy. "And why are you so… good? Aren't you supposed to be the God of Death, killing everyone who calls you?"

"All souls that go through to the afterlife go through me," said the Death God after a short pause and rolled up his sleeves, showing the black tattoos on his arms. "See those? You can see them as my supporting evidence: if it wasn't for these tattoos, all of the souls that I consumed would have stayed in the same state, flying between life and death without an end."

"Wait, so every single soul goes through your body?" Naruto asked in disbelief – sure, he was a God, but this was a bit too much though – and Shinigami nodded.

"I only appear in human world to consume two souls – the soul of a person that called me and his opponent's person, otherwise I can do everything from the underworld. In this state, as I said earlier, I can't do the same but we can still save some souls, so help me. I'm not saint – I can assure you of this, I have consumed souls that belonged to innocent people too many times – but neither am I the devil as you, humans, seem to think of me. Do we have a deal, then?"

There were still some uncertainties and Naruto was unsure how _exactly _was he going to travel around the world without Jiraiya because there was no way in hell that his Jiji was going to agree to this, but the whole thing didn't sound as bad as he thought. In fact, if everything that Shinigami said was true, wouldn't that make him the saviour of the world? Just how many souls was he going to save?!

"We can begin with the Fire Country," as if reading his thoughts – perhaps he was, actually – said Shinigami. "We won't travel as much as I would like, but it would suffice until you become a genin and Hokage will start sending you off on different missions outside of the Fire Country."

"But I don't want to become a genin," Naruto said honestly, "and you should know it by now, seeing as you know what I'm thinking about…"

"It's not the matter of you want, Naruto – you _have _to, otherwise Konoha's council won't allow you to leave Konoha's border."

"Why would they do it?"

Shinigami kept silent.

"Will you tell me when I help you in consuming one soul?"

"Yes, but before doing so, you have to know something. You can't use chakra."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck and looked down, trying not to look too upset, but completely failing. "I know that… and it seems that I can't do anything about it."

"It's partly my fault, actually. When I was sealed off inside you, you lost your ability to use chakra. I didn't consume it, per se, but my mere presence made sure that you can no longer use chakra that naturally produces within your body – instead, my body automatically gets rid of it, leaving only enough for you to survive."

"Can't you fix this?" the boy said hopefully and looked up right into God's black eyes. "Our travelling will be much easier if I can jump from tree to tree…"

Shinigami tilted his head to the left, eyeing Naruto with slight interest. "I am a God and I currently reside within you. I will teach you everything that you need to know, and in a few years people of the same age as you won't be worth anything, when compared to you. You are forgetting where chakra came from, and that it is just a pure imitation of the power that us, Gods, possess. Now go back and concentrate on your taijutsu: that's all you need to know for now."

One – and the walls are nothing but a dark-green stain in his eyes. Two – and the image of Shinigami begins to fade. Three – and he abruptly wakes up in his body, sitting up and coughing due to the sudden teleportation. Or, rather, regaining consciousness.

Well, at least he knew what he had to do now.

He had to ask his old man to take him to the library, learn everything there is to learn for the finals and become the best ninja ever in order to save lives, dattebayo!

xxxx

In reality, becoming 'the best' wasn't that easy in the least.

It has been almost three weeks since Naruto began coming to the library, a few minutes away from his house, that he realised how pointless him sitting here was. Sure, he opened books and began reading them, but every time he faced two struggles and didn't know how to overcome them.

First of all, his reading skills were… rusty. And that was a nice way to put it. So what if he didn't stay in the library for hours and hours, reading fairy tales and whatnot? He enjoying playing in the park much more, so up until today he didn't see his poor reading skills as anything to be ashamed of. Now, however, when he was struggling to read some extremely long names in some of the history books, he simply felt dishearted; well, that, and the fact that he found it almost impossible to link certain paragraphs with each other. Maybe he was one of those people who weren't able to read like an average person did? How were they called, again? Dys- dyslek-

Either way, the other problem that he faced while reading old, dusty books, was his lack of attention. He didn't really mind when people called him hyper – that was the truth, after all – but he _did _mind it when his interest span was so short. One minute he was squinting his eyes, trying to make sense of what he was reading, and the next he found himself standing next to a shelf with magazines and old newspapers. Seriously, how did this happen?

He thought about asking someone for help, but his only friends – Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji – were probably going to make fun of him and call him a geek for spending so much time in libraries; Kiba and Choji certainly would, anyway – Naruto wasn't so sure about Konoha's laziest kid, Shikamaru.

Talking to Jiji about his 'problems' was just awkward, as he would probably decide to sit in libraries with him and ask him to read everything out loud. No, thanks, he didn't want to embarrass himself for life, not until he became at least a chuunin. Kakashi and others were probably busy with missions – now wasn't the safest time in the ninja world and many ninjas he knew had to undertake solo missions, some of them not coming back.

So, who _was _he going to ask? Calling Shinigami seemed like an absolutely moronic idea, although he probably knew of his struggles already. No, the Death God wasn't sealed inside him, so he could teach Naruto how to _read _and get what you're reading, dammit!

But never mind that, he felt too tired and decided to take a break. Stretching out and sighing in relief, he closed the books and left them on his table, along with his jacket: the last couple of days were exceptionally warm, so he took full usage of this nice weather. He waved at the librarian (who only fixed her glasses and gave him an evil look, as if she saw right through his demeanour and knew that he was up to some mischief) and left the library, checking his pockets for any cash and slowly walking down the street, the sun feeling rather nice on his face.

It was then that Naruto heard what he dearly hoped wasn't a bunch of bullies. "So what, no one likes your wide forehead anyway!"

"I-I don't care, I have bangs that cover m-my forehead," he heard some other girl stutter and began looking around; he did not like the direction that conversation was taking, for he knew it all too well.

"You think that _this _will make your gigantic forehead look smaller? Ha-ha-ha, you are even dumber than I thought, Forehead Girl!"

"S-stop…"

"Oh, that's a good one! Come one, Forehead Girl!"

"Forehead Girl!"

"Forehead Girl!"

Naruto turned around the corner just when a bunch of kids began chanting that awful nickname, and he didn't stop himself from landing a punch on one of them.

In usual situation, his kick, no matter how much force and anger he put into it, didn't leave much damage – he wasn't as physically fit and taijutsu trained as some other kids, even a few months younger than him; and the kid that he hit with such passion looked at least two or three years older than him. So imagine his surprise when his hit not only made the kid stumble, but also made him completely lose his balance and sent him flying to the ground a few meters away from Naruto and the rest of the kids.

Naruto looked at his fist in pure wonder. Did Shinigami… help him just now?

He heard other kids gasp, and when he finally looked up, four pairs of eyes were looking at him. However, not all of them were full of hatred – a girl with pink hair and green eyes looked at him like he was her hero. Without a second thought, he pointed his index finger at her and slightly smiled, "You…"

It was that girl from the Yamanaka Flower – he saw her when he was picking flowers for his parents' graves. The pink-haired girl seemed confused for a second, but then her tear-filled eyes cleared and she began to viciously nod.

They didn't have much time to talk, however; the kid that Naruto hit a few seconds ago was already picking himself up and slowly dusting his trousers off, everything about him screaming that he was absolutely pissed with whoever it was that interrupted him.

"And who are you, scumbag?" he said as he looked up and frowned at Naruto's appearance. "Ah, it's you, Demon Boy. Want to get beaten up, or something?"

For some reason, Naruto wasn't scared or distressed about that kid's words – usually they would have at least _some _sort of effect on him. Now, however, he was at absolute peace, and even his hyperactive self didn't seem to show itself. Maybe it was because, for the first time, he was going into a fight for someone other than himself? He recalled that he never fought for one of his friends; Choji was the epicenter of calmness and peace, so no one really cared about him and how much meat he liked to eat for dinner. Oh, and there was also a fact that he came from a relatively well-known clan, just as Shikamaru and Kiba did, so not many civilian kids found it in themselves to mess with the off springs of some of village's strongest clans.

Now, however? Now he didn't mind beating the crap out of that arrogant kid for bullying a girl who didn't look older than him and kept nervously fidgeting with her fingers. All he had to do was grasp her hand and run as fast as possible, just until he saw some abandoned shop or house, but something within him said that there was no need. This 'something' spoke loud and clear, like he knew what he was talking about, and it might have just been Shinigami supporting him, though he could be wrong.

If he was able to send on them flying to the ground with a single kick, what would he able to do to the rest? There were two guys and a girl, and the three of them were only a year or so older than Naruto. That, and the fact that the girl was already trembling with fear, and he could almost see her holding back her tears. Wow, he didn't know he was _that _scary from a side point of view.

Trying to look as intimidating as he could (to do so, Naruto clenched both of his hands into fists, lowered his head and began looking at the rest of the bullies from below his eyebrows), he deliberately took a slow but powerful step forwards. He knew that he wasn't anything to be scared of – and neither was any other four-years-old – but it made the two guys flinch and that girl even chocked, obviously not wanting to whimper in front of them. The guy that Naruto sent flying to the ground, however, only spit and wiped his mouth, standing into a fighting position.

"Come at me, ya lil' Demon Boy."

But Naruto acted smarter than that: he continued standing and staring at them with equal dislike. If that bastard wanted to vent him up, it didn't work; for the first time in months, Naruto didn't feel like attacking his opponent, and instead decided to wait for his attack. Eventually, his silence pissed the other kid off and, with a grunt, he lunged at Naruto with his right fist drawn forward.

Everything after that was happening in slow-motion for Naruto. One second he stood still, his body as stoic as a rock and his mind at peace, and the next he drawled his left hand out, grabbing the kid's fist that was obviously heading in his face's direction. He squeezed guy's fist and pulled him downwards and to himself, thus moving the guy's whole body in the whole direction.

Before his opponent had time to dodge or land another attack on him, Naruto kicked him right into his nose with his right fist, making sure that he put as much force into that kick as he had. Instead of letting go of the guy's fist, which would send him flying backwards from Naruto's previous punch, the latter one kept a tight hold of his fist and kicked the guy in his stomach – once, twice, thrice, again and again, with his knees, his right hand that was currently clenched into a fist and, finally, with his foot. The last kick made the guy bend over and give out a series of violent cough, but Naruto never felt so powerful, so he didn't stop himself from acting upon his true desires.

Opening up his left hand, thus allowing the guy to take a few steps back, Naruto quckly threw his right arm over guy's neck and held it in place with his left hand, just in case that kid was strong enough to get out of his harms. Tightening his hold – not enough to make his opponent choke, mind you, but just enough to make him start grabbing your right arm and begging you to let him go – Naruto put his left foot forward, unbeknown to the guy. Then, he swiftly and efficiently dragged the guy in his leg's direction, and the latter one wasn't able to put his arms forward to prevent himself from falling on the ground once again and landing on his very face (that he probably really valued, but it wasn't like Naruto cared enough about letting this guy go without a few good hits).

Feeling like it still wasn't enough, Naruto pulled that guy up by his collar and head-butted him without holding back – the one thing that he always executed flawlessly. "You call me 'Demon Boy' or something else one more time and I will make sure that you don't get home in one piece!"

It was a minute or two later, when the so-called 'band' already fled, scared for their own lives, that Naruto felt someone touching his shoulder and he almost jumped at the touch. Unfortunately, he wasn't one of those lucky people who knew how to speak or act around girls.

"Thank you for protecting me…"

Rapidly blinking, he tilted his head to the left. Why did she pause?

Oh, she wanted to know his name!

"Uzumaki Naruto, 'ttebayo!"

"Thank you, Naruto," the pinkette said with a gentle smile and, after a bit more fidgeting, quickly stretched her arm out and even bowed. "I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you!"

He nervously laughed but shook her hand nevertheless. Was it how all girls talked to guys? If so, then he had no wonder why Shikamaru constantly referred to the female population as being 'troublesome' – who knew what she was going to do next? Maybe she was going to throw herself at him and almost suffocate him with hugs!

Luckily for him, nothing like that happened when they broke their handshake. On the very contrary, Sakura took a step back and straightened her back, her green eyes shining. Naruto didn't know what to say next, so he decided to voice the first thing that came into his mind.

"Haruno Sakura? Doesn't that mean 'spring blossom' or something?"

Sakura giggled and nodded, "Y-yeah, a lot of people tell me that. I suppose it's only expected, but it's still sort of… annoying, I guess. And you? Why did they call you 'Demon Boy'? That was completely awful of them!"

"Ah, it's because of these," said Naruto, pointing at his horns and then curling one of his white strands on his right hand's index finger. The action caused him to wince and abruptly bow down, holding onto his right hand and whispering 'ittai!' again and again. The euphoria from giving someone such a good beating was gone, and now he had to face the consequences of his rushed (but absolutely right!) actions.

"Are you okay?" Sakura worriedly exclaimed and bowed down, trying to gauge his face expression. When she received a nod from his, Sakura sighed in relief. "But are these real? Like, d-did you have them since birth?"

"Yeah… don't you think it's weird? Most people call me a freak because of them," he said in all honesty and straightened up, looking around. The small alleyway, save for the two of them, was empty and it didn't look like someone was going to come here any sooner.

"Why would I call you a freak? I'm a freak, too," she said honestly and gave out a dry laugh. Naruto didn't think it was a laughing matter, however, and instead of saying 'yeah' or something, he decided to do something his Jiji would frown upon. He raised his left hand and, clenching it into a fist, hit Sakura's head with a loud 'thumb'. She yelped, taken by complete surprise, and took a few steps backwards, eyeing him carefully and looking hurt because she trusted him, dammit!

"What was that for?!"

"Let's make a deal: you are not a freak and I'm not a freak, alright? As long as the other doesn't call you a freak, you aren't one. And don't listen to other people – my old man always said that people like to blabber some gibberish that hurts other people, so… don't listen to them. And your forehead, um," Naruto could feel his cheeks heating up and he shifted his weight from his left leg to his right one. "I-I think your forehead looks nice. So. Don't hide it with bangs. I-I mean if you don't want to."

This was the time when Sakura decided to blush, too, so she averted her gaze, though she was still frowning because he hit her earlier.

"Don't tell me what to do."

"I wasn't!"

Silence.

"F-fine, I will think about growing them out," she said slowly, "but only if you promise not to hide your horns!"

"I never hid my horns!"

"Good! Then… don't do it in the future…"

Pinkette opened her mouth as she wanted to say something else, but no words left her mouth and she abruptly closed it. Naruto took it as her trying to not come put rude by saying that she needs to go, so he helped her, "Umm, I need to go back to the library now, so I will see you aro-"

"Oh!" Sakura perked up and she finally looked him in the eyes. "I-I was going to the library, too."

"Great, then we can go together," Naruto said, beaming at her, all the while trying not to sound too eager – after all, he never had a female friend before! To prevent himself from saying something stupid, thus embarrassing himself in front of her for all it was worth, Naruto carefully looked at her from the corner of his eyes. The first thing that he noticed in her was her hair; having a pink hair was unnatural, but then, who was he to talk, what with white hair and everything? She was slightly shorter than him, carrying a big bag that was filled with-

"Sakura!" he suddenly shouted out which made her jump up and look at him like he was losing his mind. "You have so many books – you like to read, right?"

"Erm, well," she murmured, looking for correct words, "y-yeah, I do and I spend a lot of time reading…"

"Great, I need your help!"

Seeing her confused face, he elaborated, "I'm entering the Academy in a few months-"

"Me too."

"-and I was looking through a bunch of books," that was the understatement of the year, "but I just don't get it… Can you help? In reading, I mean?"

Sakura thought of his proposal for a moment and then carefully nodded, chewing on her lower lip in that nervous habit of hers. It looked like she was seriously considering his proposal – and something else. "I will… but in return, can you teach me how to fight like this? My taijutsu is weak, and my Mum said I shouldn't enter the Academy because I will fall behind in physical combats…"

"Don't worry, I will get you there in no time!" Naruto exclaimed with a thumb up, beaming at her. By the time they reached the library, the two couldn't stop giggling at the face that brat made after Naruto hit him and sent him flying to the ground.

xxxx

Hundreds and hundreds kilometers away from Konoha, man that called himself Pein opened his eyes and sniffed the air. For some unfathomable reason, Konan didn't wake up this morning and, judging by Sun's position, it was nearing 1 in the afternoon. His last fight exhausted him so much that he had to sleep, and now it turned out that he slept for approximately seventeen or so hours.

His opponent was much stronger than Pein expected, but it's not to say that he thought of losing; no, he didn't have a right to even think about a word like this – not when he was finally forming his organization and had to show how strong and dangerous he is. Him and Konan already found a few potential members, but Pein said that he needs to see them for himself – perhaps they were just ordinary missing-nins who killed a bunch of people and the public made them out to be much more dangerous than they actually were.

Pein sat up on his bed, mused his hair and put on an ordinary black cloak. He and the other three members of Akatsuki were currently staying at one of their hideouts in the Wave Country. All of them hated hiding and preferred to make themselves known to their enemies, but not now, when there were only four of them: Pein aimed to gain at least another six members. Ten was a good number. Ten would make them seem like an official organization, never mind that people right across the world already heard of them and knew what sort of threat they are.

It wasn't long before he stood up and left his room, all thought about potential members hiding at the back of his mind: there were things that he had to take care of before leaving the Wave Country once again.

The compound that they were currently occupying once belonged to Wave's daimyo but Kakuzu quickly got rid of the 'problem' and made sure that no one would be coming here, looking for that guy, any time soon. Pein wasn't used to this sort of luxury, but he still took full use of it. He looked out of the window when he heard a soft whistle, and wasn't surprised at all when he saw a familiar figure nearing the compound. Instead of using chakra and transporting himself outside, he slowly approached the stairs and began walking down just as slowly.

A minute or so later, he closed the main door behind himself. "Your whistle was probably what woke me up, then. Did you bring what I need, Orochimaru?"

The said nukenin smirked and licked his lips with that disgustingly long tongue of his, "But of course – you can check it for yourself, I wasn't certain whether I should give it to Konan-san. You know how it is, no one can be trusted."

"Konan is my right hand and she is the most trusted member of Akatsuki," Pein retorted coldly and took the scroll from Orochimaru's hands. He then got rid of the seal and swiftly opened it, his Rinnegan studying its content in great details. Usually, his eyes didn't show any emotions and the remaining members were used to his blank face expression, but now… Pein didn't stop himself from smiling when he finished reading the document. Good gods, it was even better than he expected!

"Then, shall we attack, Leader-sama?" Orochimaru asked in that sly manner of his, his gaze calculating and greedy. "Now would be the perfect timing to capture-"

"Now would be the _worst _timing to try and capture the Nine-Tails," was his immediate reply. "It doesn't matter that the war has ended roughly five years ago: most countries are still in conflict with each other and take any precautions they need to keep themselves and their people safe. Even though you have an insider person in Konoha, it doesn't change the fact that we will be noticed right away, and my Shinra Tensei technique still isn't complete… Even with our current powers, I doubt Konoha's shinobi will give up without a fight. We have to wait."

"But you saw what's written about that boy, Namikaze Naruto, right? The council suspects that both the Nine-Tails and the God of Death are sealed off inside of him, although they aren't sure. If we are able to capture the boy and extract both, we will have some un-imaginary powers – powers that belong to a God!" The feverish excitement in his eyes didn't go unnoticed by Pein, and he frowned. He knew from the very start that Orochimaru isn't someone who should be trusted; he wanted too much power all at once, and that's not what Akatsuki was aiming for. Their primary goal was to reach perfect peace, even if it would be achieved through pain and fear…

"_I _am a God," was Pein's final answer, yet he could see how the corners of Orochimaru's mouth began lowering. The snake-man was obviously unhappy, but if he even dared to voice his true opinion, Pein would get rid of him in a fracture of a second. "I possess godly powers and my paths are similar to that of God's. We don't need the Death God at our disposal right now, and will only began considering it after we capture the rest of the present jinchuriki. But even then, _we _won't be the one who will use his power as we wish – we will use it for a greater cause."

"Of course, Leader-sama, I didn't dare to wish for anything else."

Pein wasn't convinced in the slightest; he was good at reading people and he could see it as clear as day that Orochimaru had his own ideas on the whole thing and perhaps wanted to rebel. As long as these desires stayed desires, Pein truly didn't care. Other members joined Akatsuki for a range of different reasons, and if having godly powers and hundreds upon hundreds of dead – and alive – bodies was what Orochimaru wished for after they reached their peace, well… Pein was going to make sure that it didn't happen.

"Out of interest… how many people did you have to kill, in order to obtain this scroll?" Pein asked without a second thought. If killing off a whole village meant peace in the end, he didn't mind, but he was still a bit apprehensive about Orochimaru. The man loved to kill, but he also liked keeping his victims alive for his future experiments, so… how many were killed this time?

"Oh, only a handful, Leader-sama. You see, I informed Sarutobi that I will drop by to pick that scroll a few weeks before the set date and my favourite sensei made sure that I got inside Konoha without many casualties… Who else is as lucky as me and has a direct connection with the village's Kage, Leader?"

xxxx

A/N: Dun dun dunnnn Yeah I made Sarutobi evil guy who's helping Orochimaru. Why? *snickers* Well, you will have to read on to find out – I can only say that I reeeeally like the whole idea of Hiruzen being an evil guy… Or maybe he isn't evil after all? Who knows (certainly not me cause I'm making this up as I go along lol)


	4. Chapter 4

Hope everyone is having a good day (how's 2015 for everyone so far?) and here you go with a new chapter… need I say more lol

I only hope that you will enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed writing it.

xxxx

Chapter Four

"Let's begin our training," Shinigami said, wearing a mad smirk, and placed his hand on Naruto's head. "Now, open your eyes as I will be showing you what to do."

Naruto did as he was told and he woke up in the same dirty dark-green as he did earlier on. He knew that it wasn't the time, or the place, to complain, but he felt the urge to do so. How could anyone train while surrounded by _this _sort of dreadful atmosphere?! It kinda took away his will to train. Ever.

"Um, but what's up with this place? Can't you make it cleaner or something? I mean, I know that you are sealed off inside me, but you still have some of your powers, so can't you change it to something… nicer?"

The Death God chuckled – he felt like he was getting soft around this kid. "I didn't know that you cared about cleanliness so much, Naruto, especially looking at how clean your room is…"

The boy stiffened and he could feel his ears burning up, but thank god they were hidden under his hair and thanks god he didn't cut his hair long enough that some of its strands reached his shoulders. Before meeting Shinigami, his old man was the only person who constantly lectured him about how messy his room is and how he should at least throw away empty ramen packages. Who knew that he's going to have _two _people telling him to clean his room! Well, technically Shinigami wasn't a 'person', but it didn't change the fact that Shinigami and Jiraiya, who had didn't have a direct link to him, like being his relative or something, treated him like some brat who didn't know how to put laundry in a washing machine!

"We aren't talking about my room, are we?" Naruto asked and frowned at Shinigami, daring him to say anything else. "I mean, you are supposed to be so strong and everything, and yet you can't even change _this_?"

Most of the time, it humoured the Death God just how picky and stuck-up this little ball of flesh and blood could be. He knew damn well that he was talking to a God, yet it didn't prevent him from showing his true colours, like his constant bratishness and exceptional sarcasm, which he probably picked up from one of his friends – Kiba, wasn't it? Yeah, Naruto knew that Shinigami could easily smack him against the wall without as much as moving his hand, yet here he was, throwing everything he had into God's face.

"Why would I use my power if you can do it by yourself?" Shinigami finally answered while looking around. Hell, the hallway _did _look pretty awful. "After all, we are inside your head – or something along the lines. If you want to, you can make this look just like your room, although I wouldn't advise to do so."

Naruto purposely ignored his comment and began thinking. Was it really that easy? Did he have to imagine in his head, and it will become reality in an instant? Well, in that case…

It wasn't long before he created a mental image of a big, white hallway with barely visible patterns here and there. He imagined that the ceiling would be light-yellow but it sparkled from time to time. Of course, all of this… smoke and muddy water were gone.

When he opened his eyes, everything looked according to his imagination – and better. Instead of being yellow, the ceiling looked _freaking golden! _Naruto could only gape at it, completely mesmerised at how clean and fresh everything looked. When he turned his gaze to the white floor and took a few steps, no footprints were left behind: hallway's wall remained just as clean as it was moments ago.

He turned his gaze towards Shinigami and the latter was smirking, his arms folded on his chest and his fangs reflecting the light; where was the light coming from, anyway?

"It comes from your soul," the Death God responded instantly and, yet again, Naruto was absolutely mad that the God could read his mind – it became an ordinary thing ever since they made a deal month-and-a-half ago. For Naruto, this whole time was torture. Not only did Shinigami refuse to train him until 'he was ready' (and now was finally that moment) but he also read Naruto's thoughts and didn't think much of it at all! "Your soul is still innocent and light, not yet covered in blood and greediness that this world is full of."

"But Jiji said that I can be greedy… and I hate someone I know," the boy disagreed after some deep thinking. "Doesn't that make me a bad person?"

"You haven't killed, Naruto. You haven't used others for your own benefit, you aren't constantly stealing from others for your own benefit and – you didn't act on your so-called hatred yet. This hatred that you think you harbour… I don't think that it will take you long to realise that it's not hate, and it never was one. For now, however, your soul is still innocent and I would like it to stay innocent for as long as possible."

"What, are you planning to consume it after you get out of here?" Naruto naturally asked, rising his eyebrow. "If so, I will definitely do something on the 'don't do it' list before you even try to eat my soul."

Shinigami let out a throaty laugh and shook his head. "Believe it or not, I don't constantly eat souls because I'm hungry – it's a part of my job."

"Yeah-yeah, keep telling yourself that."

"Do you want to train or waste our time, criticising each other's diet?"

"Okay, I will stop! So what are we doing now?"

The God of Death took out a scroll, hidden within his garment, and placed it into Naruto's hands – the action required him to bow down.

"Here, drop it."

Naruto did as he was told, and then looked down at the yellowish scroll with a 'I have no idea what I'm doing' face.

"Now open it." When the boy began leaning down, Shinigami stopped him. "That is, without actually touching the scroll."

"What, like… by only thinking about it? I can't do that!"

"You have just completely transformed a whole hallway into something completely different by merely thinking about it. What makes the idea of opening the scroll less believable?"

"Well, I did it inside my head – I won't be able to do it out there…" Naruto amended with a sheepish grin.

"And who told you that?" Shinigami asked him in all seriousness. "You are lucky enough to have a God sealed off inside you, which allows you to do as you wish with my powers – that is, while I'm the one guiding you, because without my help you will never be able to use them. It will probably take a lot of practicing – and time – for you to succeed as my vessel and do my job for me, but we will get there, as long as you listen to my direct instructions, got it?"

"Yeah…"

"Now open up that scroll."

Naruto huffed and began staring at the scroll. He tried not to blink in the process, but nothing was happening. Was he not doing it right? He then decided to close his eyes and take a few deep and deliberate breaths. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale – that's what his old man did whenever he meditated. Feeling his whole body gradually relax, the boy thought about the scroll and imagined it opening in his head, again and again.

When he opened his eyes, he had to sigh and whimper in utter disappointment. The seal was still in place – it didn't move a single centimetre! Maybe it was all the seal's fault, anyway? Ugh, it didn't work out after the first try, and he sorta felt like giving up already – this wasn't the best way to go around it, though.

"I can't open it," he complained to Shinigami but the latter one didn't utter a word and only pointed in the scroll's direction, nodding his head.

"Remember, you will only find out more about your parents when we put on those souls in peace, and this can only be done after you some training. Stop complaining and think about yourself, physically opening this scroll – don't just imagine how it's opening up on its own, that's now what's going to happen in real world."

And so Naruto nodded and put his whole mind to the task, but this time he didn't close his eyes. He stared at the scroll for what felt like hours, but really, it was probably mere minutes. He missed the moment when the seal began moving, and only snapped out of his thoughts when he saw the scroll finally rolling over the ground, opening for up for his intrigued gaze.

"Yes, I did it! You saw that, Shinigami – I opened this scroll without even touching it! I'm soo cool!"

The Death God only chuckled and shook his head, "This is only the first attempts, kid, and it took you a lot of time to do it. Don't think that if you succeeded once, it will keep happening in real world. Try doing it a few more times, and then you will get to try it out in real world. If it happens, we will move on to harder techniques – I know that you want it, too."

Naruto eagerly nodded and picked up the scroll, putting a seal on it once again and then letting it fall to the ground with a thud. He then took a step back and concentrated on the task in hand, his mind suddenly at peace – it was probably because he finally knew what he was doing.

Half an hour – and thirteen successful attempts – later Naruto sat down on the ground and sighed: he could feel the beginning of a huge migraine, but it didn't stop him from getting hyped up about trying this out outside of his mind.

"I'm going, then?" he asked Shinigami and the latter one nodded, waving his hand at him and soon, Naruto woke up in his bed. He could feel beads of sweat rolling down his temple, so he quickly wiped them off, already exhausted from the morning session. The only good thing that resulted from these 'mind' practices was that he didn't even need to get out of his bed. On the other hand, there were several drawbacks to it, nevertheless.

For example, this excessive sweating. He just couldn't get his head around it: why was he sweating if all he was doing was a little bit of practise in his own head? _With his mind? _He barely moved there, as well! However, feeling his own t-shirt sticking to his back because of this sweat, Naruto forced himself to get up and thought of getting a shower a bit later on.

The other drawback was that he didn't have control over factors outside of his mind while he was talking to Shinigami. Naturally, while being in his own head, he didn't know what was happening on the outside, and for all he knew, there could be Jiraiya, shouting at him that breakfast is ready while having a pan in his hand. Actually, this has happened a few days ago, when Naruto spent what felt like _hours _talking to Shinigami and asking him personal (or so he thought) questions. But then again, how did Gods have personal lives, if everyone knew about their jobs and the likes?

Naruto's gaze fell upon a bunch of books, scattered around the ground, and he repressed the urge to run over to them and carefully pick them up, for they were taken from the library and Sakura would _kill _him if she found out that he was so careless around them. Well, not exactly kill, but definitely be annoyed with him and would probably ignore him for a few weeks.

So, did he have it in himself to close and pick them up at his wish? He was about to find out.

Focusing on the task at hand and even squinting a little bit, Naruto imagine himself picking up those books and putting them on a shelf. He kept thinking of it for a few seconds, and then something happened – something much cooler than he could have even imagines. It wasn't the books moving – it was the thing that formed around them. A blur of golden and silver formed around these books; it was so bright that Naruto kept gaping at it for a few seconds. Then, the books finally began to pick themselves up and, slowly closing, retreated to the bookselves in his room. Only when they stood there, side by side, did the light stop shining, and Naruto was still standing in the middle of his room, gaping at the whole scene.

"What… what was that?" he said out loud in pure wonder, because never in a thousand years he imagined that his powers – or Shinigami's, rather – were so colourful.

'As I said earlier, your soul is still pure. As such, even though you are currently using my powers, they adjust under your soul's influence and look just like your soul – but only to you. Before I was sealed off inside you, my body was seemingly see-through and the same was with my powers, although they had a dark blue shade. After – or if, but it's inevitable in the shinobi world that you live in – you do one of the things that would stain your soul, your powers will become darker and darker, until they turn absolutely black."

"I see," Naruto mused on his words for a little bit. "But is making my powers look… black bad? I mean, you are a powerful God and your powers have a dark colour, so maybe it's better?"

'The colour has nothing to do with how powerful the user of these powers is.'

"Okay… but why do I even see these… powers, and others can't? Doesn't it resemble chakra, then? Well, sort of."

'Silly human, I already told you that chakra and everything afterwards came from God's powers. As such, it's absolutely different and acts in a completely different manner. Rather than being visible, it's referred to as an inner strength but can also be the strength that controls nature.'

"I will be able to control nature? Cool!"

'It will take quite some time, kid, don't get too excited over it. And yes, you will, but without jutsu, chakra and other man-made things,' Shinigami responded after a second thought and added, 'though I don't see it happening it any time soon. You will need to learn so much before even _attempting _to control nature.'

The boy nodded and looked at his messy floor. "Alright, then I will practice cleaning my floor, while only using my awesome powers!"

'Those powers belong to me, kid.'

"Yeah, and I'm currently using them! Oh," Naruto's eyes widened , his mind finally catching up with implications. "But wait, you will leave my body someday, right? And you will probably find a way out before I turn old and grey, right? Then this means… that I won't be able to use your powers anymore. Will I have my chakra back then? But… I won't know how to use it – that is, if I get it back."

Shinigami said nothing, for he never though what his removal would mean for the kid and he spent most of the time, thinking of the way out. Sure, he was going to continue living as he did before, but what about the child in the prophecy? The weight of the world was on his shoulders: if Namikaze Naruto wasn't able to use neither God's powers, nor his own in a form of chakra control, what would happen to the world and just how much would it change? Did it mean that he had to stay in boy's body for the rest of eternity?

He didn't have answers to his own questions, so in the end, he decided to answer Naruto's question without actually answering it, 'It is rather possible for chakra to return when I leave your body. For now, however, you have to concentrate on task at hand – it will take you _years and years _to learn how to use my powers in a correct manner. Clean your floor and take a shower – I recall that you have a meeting with someone today…'

"Oh yeah, it's a get-together! I can't be late to that!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs and ran towards bathroom like it was the last thing he was going to do. "Sorry, can't train anymore, Shinigami, but we will continue after I get back home!"

'Tch, silly human being, you don't need to shout about it – Jiraiya might hear you and he will assume that you are going mental,' the Death God noted with a smile and, when he felt that Naruto was no longer paying attention to him, took out his scrolls and began carefully studying them. Those were the scrolls that always told him what was happening in human's world, like upcoming wars and such. It was silent for the last year or so, but now he could clearly see words written in black ink: 'Akatsuki are getting stronger. They keep getting new members. Their target in unforeseen future is every single Jinchuriki.'

As far as Shinigami knew, everyone still considered Naruto a Jinchuriki, so surely, Akatsuki will send someone after him as well. But it wasn't in Shinigami's plans to be captured by a group of rogue ninjas who referred to themselves as those who 'carry the will of God'. Shinigami scoffed. What did those fouls even know about the term 'God'?

xxxx

{I advise you to listen to 'Attack on Titan OST - Vogel im Käfig' during Temari's bit}

_Temari nervously gulped, her eyes betraying her and showing just how scared she was. "You want us to __**what, **__Dad?"_

"_As I said, I want you, Kankuro and one of my trusted men to go with Gaara to Konohagakure. I need a break, and many of the civilians aren't feeling safe around him in the least.'_

_She could clearly hear the clock's ticking – it was the only sound in the room at the moment. If someone asked her how she felt about the idea, she would have waved that someone off and told him or her that she was fine and it was none of their business, anyway. What she really thought, however, was the exact opposite. She was, for the lack of other words, scared __**shitless. **__Temari could feel her heartbeat echoing in her stomach and her feet, and her palms were getting increasingly sweaty. No, cross that out – scared shitless didn't even begin to cover it. Her own father wanted to send her and Kankuro off with their 'dear' brother and some guy she probably never saw before? God, what if Gaara didn't hold himself back once again and…_

_Temari shuddered, because, surely, Gaara wasn't going to kill that poor guy off – or them… right?_

"_Dad, I- With all the respect, I don't think that it's the best idea," she carefully said and tugged on her top. She tried to sound as adult-like as possible, but to her father it still probably sounded like some childish blabbering. However, she couldn't find it in herself to seriously argue with her father, for he wasn't just anyone: he was a Kazekage, and since their mother gave birth to Gaara and died, blood ties meant little to nothing to him. "You know that Gaara isn't… stable… and there may be some… casualties…"_

"_The man that I'm sending with you will make sure that it doesn't happen, Temari. Now be a good girl and call your beloved brother in; I will talk to Gaara later. I'm sure that he won't care either way."_

_But she wasn't listening to him anymore, and tried not to shake. No. No. Not again. Not after he killed his own babysitter and went on a killing spree. She didn't want to be there – she didn't want to be anywhere __**near **__that monster. Temari held back her tears, but a strangled choke still left her mouth. She clenched her fists at her sides, forming a plan in her head. If she was going to argue with him, a bunch of guardians will simply walk in and take her away, because 'Kazekage was busy' – in reality, he just didn't want to deal with his own children._

_On dark night, she would wish on a shooting star for everything to change. She wanted her and Kankuro to be raised by loving parents – absolutely ordinary civilian parents who cared about them; she wanted to have nothing in common with their younger brother who only cared about blood shedding and killing everyone who didn't agree with him. And if that couldn't happen, she wished that someone would take her far, far away from here._

_It seemed that one part of her wish was coming true – he own dad wanted to get rid of them for the time being, and Temari knew that she should be happy and thankful for having some time away from her father, but she just couldn't find it in herself to care._

"_But Dad, Suna and Konoha aren't at peace. I'm sure that someone will try to kill us as soon as we step our foot in the Fire Country."_

"_That's not going to happen, because you will act as a small civilian family who ran away from the Sand Country and wants to stay in Fire until they have enough money and opportunities to move somewhere else. All that is required of you is to make sure your youngest brother doesn't blow up the cover."_

_He was talking about them like they were just a part of his army, like they weren't his kids in the slightest and he didn't care what happened to them in Konoha, and although Temari tried to calm herself, her temper was getting the best of her. She wasn't going to cry – that was too out of her character and anyone who knew their family would say that Kankuro and Gaara were most likely going to cry before she shed even a tear. It wasn't her being heartless, though – it was her trying to keep their family together and preventing herself from breaking down._

_She heard her father explaining where they were going to stay and for how long, but she wasn't listening. What was more effective than throwing everything off his table and shouting at him for being so cold? Maybe, pity would work?_

_Temari was admittedly bad at pretending to be upset – after all, she never cried – but she tried her hardest. Trembling lips and the overall heart-breaking face expression. She loudly swallowed and forced her voice to found higher than it was._

"_Dad, I'm… I'm afraid." God, she hated sounding this weak and helpless! "What-what if Gaara decides to attack us – his own family! – and… and that guy won't be able to do anything about it? D-Dad I don't want to die…"_

"_Stop sputtering nonsense, Temari, you are better than this. Pick yourself up and go."_

"_But Dad, I keep seeing him in my nightmares!" Lies, lies, lies. "I can see him coming near mine and Kankuro's bed and-and he looks down at us, with red eyes and big claws." At least that's what she overheard one of their servants describing to her friend. "He smelled of blood and he smiled at me, revealing his big fangs. Every time I blink, I can feel his fangs piercing through my skin and his sand attacks Kankuro, strangling him. Dad, he killed so many people, I don't want to be anywhere near him! If you can just give him aw-"_

_A loud slap made her head abruptly turn. It didn't sting – not as much as it usually did, anyway, but that slap made her drop her demeanour, as she bit onto her lower lip and relaxed her face, making it completely blank. Well, she thought to herself, if that didn't work, nothing was going to work, so she slowly turned on her hills and took a step._

_Another step._

_And another, opening the door and stepping out of his cabinet, leaving the room wide open._

xxxx

It has been a bit over seventy-two hours since she had that conversation with her Dad, and Temari was absolutely over it. Getting slapped by her father for 'messing with his business' was a usual occurrence – and who did she have to talk about it to, anyway? It's not like she had a Mum; it is worth mention that she didn't blame Gaara for their mother's death as women died while giving birth on many occasions, so this was no different – at least that's what she was told. Then why did their father blame Gaara for his wife's death? Temari supposed that she was too young to understand it, because currently it made no sense to her.

The guy that they had to travel with turned out to be someone familiar – she often saw him, standing on Kazekage's tower and giving out orders to his squad. He told them his name when they left Suna three days ago, yet she managed to forget it a minute later: it was something so ordinary and boring, that it was practically screamed 'I have five older siblings and my parents just gave up on being original when I was born'.

There were quite a few things she disliked about that guy, apart from his name. Although he did his job – that is, he ensured that Gaara kept calm and tried his best not to annoy the latter one – there was still something off about him, though she couldn't place a finger on it. Was it that he was too… friendly with them? Sure, they were Kazekage's children, but many of her Dad's subordinates simply nodded when they saw her and Kankuro and quickened their pace, trying to avoid being around them even for a moment longer.

"Can we take a break now?" she could hear Kankuro say as he gave out a tired sigh and slowed his pace. "I'm tired and hungry…"

"Konoha isn't so far away, Kankuro-kun," the guy said with the sweetest smile he could master. "Just an hour or so and we will be near its gates. You can survive another hour of travelling right?"

"Well, yeah, but can I at least have some lunch first?"

Their guardian hummed and tapped his chin with his index finger, "Alright, we can take a five-minutes break. If that's fine by you, Gaara?"

"I don't care," her youngest brother said coldly and walked towards the closest tree, sitting down and murmuring something to himself. Temari and Kankuro stopped walking, too, and they sat under a tree, but it was good twenty meters away from their brother.

The guy that led them and protected them from Fire's ninjas preferred to stand and began digging out something from his bag. Temari didn't pay attention to him in the slightest and only sighed, taking out a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese from her backpack, sharing it with Kankuro, who took it and muttered a quiet 'thank you'. They sat there in complete silence, occasionally interrupted by Kankuro's comments on how 'that cloud looks like a turtle' and Temari's 'no, it's a dog, baka'. They felt bad for taking out the last bottle of water they had from Kankuro's bag, but it was either this or suffering from dehydration and fainting. Yes, weather in the Fire Country was nothing compared to that of the Sand's Country, but it was still rather hot for an ordinary summer day, and they _had _to drink to keep themselves going.

Suddenly, Temari stopped eating her bread and looked up. Something was wrong; terribly, terribly wrong – and she could feel it, thanks to her basic ninja skills. She looked at the person next to her, but Kankuro seemed as ordinary as he usually was. Temari slowly turned her head and looked at Gaara, but he simply sat under the tree and was still mumbling something under his nose like a madman. Then-

She began choking at the sudden pain in her left shoulder, and her eyes widened at the impact it had. Temari could see Kankuro jumping up and shouting in utter surprise, but all she could do was look down and gasp. There was a sword, sticking out of her left shoulder, and it was covered in blood, drops of dark liquid slowly falling from its tip. She wanted to move her right hand and get the sword out of her shoulder, but her body didn't listen to her and kept shaking like she had a fewer; the pain in her shoulder made her completely oblivious to everything that was happening around her.

A few moments later, she felt like shouting for help and begging _anyone _to take the damn sword out of her shoulder because, yeah, she knew that a stab in shoulder wasn't going to kill her that quickly, but it was the incredible pain that she never felt before. God, how did people survive this? And yet, she kept her mouth shut, biting her lip and concentrating on breathing; on the second thought, she looked up and tried to make sense of where her brothers were.

She could see Kankuro running back to her, but Gaara's sand prevented him from reaching their sister. "Kankuro, he needs to be gotten rid of first."

"B-but Temari is injured!" Kankuro argued, still scared of Gaara and what his sand could do to him, but not caring enough to stop himself from running over to his older sister.

"Kankuro," Gaara growled and his sand began rising up Kankuro's legs, thus keeping him in place. He then turned his gaze towards their 'guardian' and gritted his teeth, his eyes showing pure hatred. "Who sent you?"

The guy smirked and did a few hand-seals, "Why, your father, of course. He gave me specific instructions: to get you into the Fire Country and then just leave you in the middle of nowhere, but your father is underestimating you. I doubt that it will take you more than two weeks to get back, even if some of the Fire authorities will be informed of who you are and that you crossed the border of a country that wants you and your whole family _dead. _Kazekage-sama is doing a great job at ruling Suna, so I won't allow you to ruin it, and I'm sorry to drag you into it, Kankuro and Temari. Just know that if it wasn't for your monster brother… I would have just left you alone and there would be no need to ki-"

His words were cut off when Gaara's sand began curling around the ninja's body: the latter one was so busy with his seals and his 'grand' speech that he didn't notice how sand grains began enveloping him a few moments earlier.

Temari blinked a few times, and tried – she really tried – to focus on her brothers and the bastard that dared to try and kill them, but her eyes just wouldn't listen to her, and she thought that her eyelids must have been at least five tonnes. She heard how Kankuro begged their younger brother not to do _it,_ how his voice was trembling so much, that one would think he was going to cry, but Kankuro really, _really _didn't want Gaara to kill anyone anymore, even though it was nearly impossible. She could hear Gaara's quiet muttering and a soft, yet cold 'get out of the way', directed to his own brother; Temari could only pray that Kankuro did just that.

She coughed blood and her headache was getting worse by the moment, yet she was able to find it in herself to speak up, hoping that her youngest brother could hear her – and didn't want to kill her after her words, "Gaara, _please, _don't kill him… you can break his legs and arms and leave… him here… but you don't need to kill him… he isn't worth it… we can report him to Fire's officials and they will put him… into prison and-"

"I crave blood," Gaara said barely above a whisper, and Temari was lucky – in a very twisted way, mind you – yet she was luckier than Kankuro and that guy who saw how Gaara's eyes widened and his mouth widened in a mad smile, his whole body twitching and trembling in anticipation. "I crave that blood. My nostrils can pick up that distant, metallic smell, and my lungs are filled with it. I can't control my urges; I need his blood to survive."

And, indeed, Gaara's sand made a cut on guy's neck and it was slowly seeping down, before being consumed by the sand – an act that made Kazekage's subordinate give out a week whimper and swallow. Kankuro could see how much this guy was struggling, but it was fruitless: Gaara's sand didn't show mercy to anyone and killed anyone who Gaara wanted dead.

Kankuro forced himself to turn around and closed his eyes with a wince, when a subtle mutter from Gaara was followed up by a short-lived scream, full of agony and pain. The guy had a painful, yet quick death – this was a blessing itself. Slowly opening his eyes and taking a shuddering breath, Kankuro gradually looked over his shoulder, but didn't scream in horror at the blood-soaked sand, for he was used to it.

When he looked back at their sister, she was close to fainting: the sword that was currently piercing her shoulder went right through the tree behind her, before going through her shoulder, so she couldn't even turn around to remove it.

"Temari!" he shouted, his voice full of concern, and ran towards their sister without a second thought, landing on his knees in front of her and hurriedly thinking through the possible actions. If he took the sword out of her shoulder, she will most likely start bleeding out at a much faster rate and possibly faint. The last time they passed by the village was a little over five hours ago, so that would mean physically carrying her to the nearby village – Kankuro was sure that Gaara wasn't going to use his sand to carry their sister, seeing as it didn't benefit him whatsoever.

The other alternative would be quickly pulling the sword out of her shoulder and begging Gaara to use his sand to cover her wound – this could work, right? Wrong, a small pile of sand will quickly get soaked in blood and his younger brother would no longer be able to use it as he wills. So, what other choice did he have? Think, Kankuro, think!

He winced when he heard another one of Temari's screams, so he intertwined their fingers and squeezed her right hand with his own, providing her with some sort of comfort. Shit, what were they going to do?!

xxxx

As he, Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru and Sakura sit in Ichiraku's, he can't stop himself from using his new power without the rest of their group realising it. For example, he would occasionally pick up Choji's sticks and throw it over the table, causing the latter one to be absolutely annoyed. Thriving to find whose fault that was he would always look to his left and right – Shikamaru and Kiba, respectively – and give them the evilest glances he could master. Naruto could barely hold back his laughter, but heard a soft chuckle from Sakura.

He asked her to come and meet with him and the guys in Ichiraku, and even though he didn't warn Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji upfront, it didn't escape him that they treated her like a friend and didn't say anything remotely rude to her. Naruto smirked when Sakura began explaining Shikamaru what's so great about her favourite book, with the latter one constantly pointing out its flaws. Life was good.

… that is, until Naruto heard someone sit next to him and looked up.

_Oh hell no._

"What are you doing here, teme?" he asked with a frown, but resisted hitting him be because Sasuke wasn't alone.

"I believe he almost begged me to go here and grab some ramen," Itachi answered for his younger brother in that plain tone of his and threw a glance at Sasuke, with the latter one humping and frowning at his older brother; Itachi didn't seem fazed.

Without a further ado, the younger of the two took a sit – one chair away from Naruto – and stared straight, his gaze unwavering. Itachi didn't say anything to that and only sat between Sasuke and Naruto, ordering something from Teuchi and being as polite as ever.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Itachi," Teuchi said in all honesty, his face looking somewhat worried. "Aren't you participating in the chuunin exam that is held tomorrow?"

"As a matter of fact, I am, but my father and mother are certain that I will pass it without a problem," came young prodigy's reply, the corner of his lips damping a bit.

After as short pause, Teuchi added, "But you don't seem as confident as your parents are."

"There is no need to be overconfident when it comes to being a shinobi," Itachi said after carefully picking his words. "For all we know, all of us can die tomorrow, so having a title like 'chuunin' or 'jonin' doesn't really matter."

That's not what Sasuke thought, though. He looked up at his big brother and squinted, his hopeful and adoring face expression saying it all. "That's not true, nii-san. Our Oto-san and Kaa-san are really proud of you because you will become chuunin so quickly, and I want to become one as soon as possible, too!"

"Yeah, as if someone as arrogant and picky as you would become chuunin any time soon," Naruto commented and bit on his lip to stop himself from snickering. He could, however, hear Kiba cackling and Choji giving some amazed sounds; Shikamaru sighed, and so did Sakura – she didn't know that much about the blond knucklehead, but she was already aware of his and Sasuke's confusing rivalry. Why did the two of them had to prove something to each other, anyway?

"What did you say, boisterous weakling?" Sasuke responded right away and bared his teeth, leaning forward and giving Naruto a nasty look. The young blond had a similar look on his own face.

"What you heard, Uchiha jackass!" he learned long ago that, to put it simply, _Itachi didn't care. _Any other older brother would have probably snapped on him long ago and at least hit him on the head, but Itachi was an unwavering mountain: the guy just didn't get affected by anything! Naruto didn't think that Itachi disliked his own brother – quite the opposite, really – so what was that all about?

"You wanna have a spar, bakaero?!" came Sasuke's inevitable question, and Naruto furiously nodded because, hell yeah, he wasn't going to back out of this one!

"All of you are just a bunch of wannabe," Shikamaru finally spoke with a sigh and began eating his portion of ramen. "I doubt any of you can you any simple jutsu, though I suspect that Sasuke already began learning the hand seals for fire-based techniques, so you are likely to lose in an instant, Naruto. Why don't you set some other goal and whoever reaches it first is the winner?"

The two rivals shared a look, full of concentrated thinking, and gradually, Naruto nodded; Sasuke followed suit.

"Both of you aim to become chuunins soon after you pass genin exams, right? Then you can see who will become a chuunin first," said Itachi when he was certain that the storm was gone – at least, for now.

There was a certain degree of doubt in Naruto's eyes because, yeah, his deal with Shinigami prompted him to become a jonin as soon as possible, so he could go on solo missions and perform his 'job' up until the Death God finds a way to remove himself from boy's body. What he _didn't_ want, though, was doing it for some stupid bet. Sure, proving Sasuke wrong and making him look like a dumbass in front of his older brother was cool, but was it worth it?

He silently asked Shinigami that same question and the latter one didn't voice his respond – instead, he chuckle and Naruto knew that he was mentally telling him to do as he wishes.

Alright, then. He will win this bet, make Sasuke embarrass himself in front of everyone and deliver his first soul in no time! The plan looked perfect.

"By the way, Itachi, do you know who you will be fighting against tomorrow?" Teuchi asked when he saw that the tension between two younger boys was gone. The Uchiha prodigy gave him a slight nod.

"Sandaime-san and the elderly decided that it would only be fair on us to find out 24 hours beforehand. I received a letter this morning that stated the name of my opponent."

"Oh? Do tell."

"It's Shisui."

Naruto didn't miss the tension between Itachi, Teuchi and Sasuke that followed Itachi's words, but he had no idea why. Who was that guy, anyway?

"Anoo, Itachi," he said tentatively, knowing that Itachi can simply pretend mute and ignore him – which he did on way too many occasions. "This Shisui, is he your friend?"

The Uchiha prodigy huffed and everyone could see the corners of his lips lifting, if only just a bit. "No, Shisui is more than a friend. Shisui is… family."

Oh. A distant relative, maybe? Or a cousin, even? Naruto wanted to ask another question but Sakura closed his mouth with a palm and held him back, quietly shaking her head. When he threw a look at his friends, Shikamaru was shaking his head as well. Well, whose fault was that he was bad in these 'social' things and didn't know much about social norms? Of course, old hermit's! His old man didn't tell him much about these sort of things, alright?

"Why would they do it though?" Shikamaru mused out loud. "Hokage – and the elderly, too – try to avoid putting family members against each other in chuunin and jonin exams to avoid conflicts, especially when it comes to families like Uchiha and Hyuuga. My dad told me of that one time Hokage decided to put two Hyuugas from side branches against each other; one of them almost died, because both of them were told to make their parents and the whole clan proud."

Choji and Kiba stopped munching on their ramen and looked up, their disbelieving eyes reflecting just how much Shikamaru's words affected them. Was it _really _that bad? At the same time, both of them were relieved because their clans weren't that big and there wasn't a single chance that they would stand against a family member when they enter chuunin exam in unforeseen future.

Itachi nodded, taking this piece of information into account, and looked down at the table, taking a pair of chopsticks into his hands and separating them; if one had to describe the look on his face right now, it would be 'haunted'. No one judged him – definitely not a bunch of four and five-years-olds and the nicest shop owner.

"Brother will fight him, using all of his strength," Sasuke said out of the blue and Naruto didn't miss the way Itachi flinched next to him; Sasuke, however, was too preoccupied with his thought to notice, and his dreamy gaze was set forward. "He will fight him and he will win, and when he wins, mother will bake us something nice and father will slap one of his friends on the back and say something like 'I told you', and then-"

"Sasuke," was all Itachi had to utter before his younger brother looked at him in confusion. "Enough."

When he didn't elaborate, Sasuke quietly asked him why not, and Itachi cracked a sad smile. "If you continue boosting about how great and almighty I am, your friends might get jealous that you have a brother like this."

This was enough, it seemed, as Sasuke began to viciously nod and began eating his ramen with a smile when the steaming bowl was put in front of him. It looked like their conversation was closed, but…

Trying to be as quiet as possible, Naruto silently turned around and leaned down to whisper something into Sakura's ear. "Sakura-chan, do you think we can come?"

"To watch this year's chuunin exam? Of course we can, and so can everyone every year since it was established, ba-ka," Sakura whispered teasingly which caused Naruto to smile like a madman. He is happy that in the short time that they've known each other she is already that comfortable around him; Jiji would be proud. Well, there is also the fact that he has a plan in his head – a plan that Sakura and the rest will probably ignore or simply raise their eyebrows upon hearing about it. Either way, he is ecstatic, because Sarutobi still owns him one, and he isn't the type of man to back out of his promise, so…

For that short amount of time, Naruto forgot everything about him and Kiba pranking the said Hokage not that long ago.

"Would you like to see it from the very front?" he then asked her and wiggled his eyebrows, which earned him a creeped out face expression.

"What, like… sit in the first row?"

"No, actually be there with the other participants! Then we can talk to them and ask them for advice and everything…"

"I don't think that it is a good idea," she said slowly, though it seemed like she was seriously considering his idea. "I mean, we haven't even entered the Academy yet, and they are already becoming chuunins – don't you think that they will just ignore us, or even worse?"

Naruto huffed, as he seriously hasn't considered this possibility. But surely, there was no way they were going to ignore his loud and rowdy self, right? And if they saw that he knew Itachi, everyone would probably be too scared to lay a finger on him! Oh, he was pumped, alright!

"Nah, I think that it will be alright," he answered without a care in the world and leaned over the table, waving at his friends to attract their attention. "Oi, are you guys going to watch the chuunin exam?"

"Of course we are, Naruto," Kiba said with his mouth full. "We are the so-called prodigies of our clans, so we can't just ditch our parents and do whatever."

The blond nodded but quickly added, "Do you want to actually meet the participants?"

"What are you talking about, you can't actually meet them," he heard Sasuke say and looked at him, baring his teeth.

"Watch me."

"Hmpf."

They spent the rest of their meal relatively silent, save for occasional 'aah hot hot hot' from Kiba and Choji, both of whom ate bowl after bowl of ramen. Naruto tried not to pry too much, but he couldn't help and occasionally overhear Itachi and Sasuke's conversation whereby Sasuke was practically begging his older brother to play with him after Itachi passes his chuunin exam. The blond tried not to feel jealous, seeing as he never had an older brother and only had to guess how having one felt like; however, he didn't sulk for long – not when Itachi straight out rejected the idea, claiming that if he passed the exam, their father would expect him to train twice, no, _three _times harder.

Naruto slowly turned his head – and remained unnoticed, since Itachi had his back to him and Sasuke was staring at his older brother, tears in his eyes. Was… Sasuke going to cry because of something as stupid as this? He stopped himself from laughing, though it was hard: look at this so-called mighty Sasuke Uchiha, who was now on the verge of crying because his older brother refused to play with him! Jee, who would have thought?!

He was about to turn around and tell his friends about it, but something in the way Sasuke bit on his lower lip and swiftly turned his head to left made Naruto rethink. He was no expert in emotions, but it seemed like this teme was seriously holding back, the unmistakable pain in his eyes; Uzumaki knew this expression – he saw it too many times in his own reflection. "Alright," Sasuke muttered without any complaint and went back to eating ramen. Itachi sighed and resumed to do so as well, but was it really alright?

After a second thought, Naruto admitted that, yeah, his thoughts weren't exactly innocent and his old man specifically told him to avoid this sort of thinking. In the end, everyone had their own problems and he had to allow Sasuke to deal with his own problems, all the while pestering him about becoming a chuunin. Naruto smiled to himself. This was a great plan.

When he and his 'gang' finished eating and stood up, Naruto quickly threw a glance over his shoulder, but he only faced Sasuke's back. Whatever.

"Guys, let's meet next to the stadium at around 10 tomorrow?" he proposed to the rest. "C'mon, I have something on my mind and we will get the best view on the chuunin exam!"

"Whatever, loudmouth," Kiba said with a taunting smirk. "See you tomorrow, then."

"See ya," said Choji and left in the same direction.

Shikamaru looked back at them. He then eyed Sakura's bag and mumbled, "Are you going to the library, then?"

"Yeah, I have to return a few books," she answered truthfully and tugged on Naruto's shirt, throwing a glance at Nara. "I'm also helping Naruto, but… do you want to come?"

"Sure, not like I've got anything better to do."

xxxx

Kankuro didn't know how long they were walking for, but it felt like years. He didn't even think about asking Gaara to help him and carry Temari – after all, he wasn't stupid enough and didn't want to die!

In the end, he had to take out the blade – they were in the silent part of the forest and it was unlikely that someone was going to come here any time soon, so they had to take off in _some _direction. Right after he pulled out the sword, he forced her to clutch onto her shoulder with her hand to stop the blood, even a little. Kankuro wasn't sure if it helped, because his mind was hazy and his vision was so _blurry _and _there was still so much blood, dammit! _But a few moments later, he managed to take a hold of himself and rip off a small piece of his shirt, which he then proceeded to tie around her shoulder. It quickly absorbed Temari's blood, but Kankuro forced himself to focus on the task at hand and made sure the knot was tight enough.

He then told her to get up – there was no need in being soft to her and he personally believed that she was much calmer when he forced her to get than she would be if he begged her. When she was more or less steady, Kankuro looked at Gaara and told him that they were moving now. The latter one gave him a small nod, though neither of them knew where to go. In the ned, Kankuro looked at the skies and it took him a few moments to figure out where south was – and they headed to south. If they went back to their country, and that ninja _was _sent to kill them by their father, they would be immediately imprisoned or, worse, executed the moment they cross the borderline. Gaara silently agreed with his explanation.

So now here they were, tired and soaking with sweat (for Temari, sweat immediately mixed with blood and made the smell even worse, but Kankuro was managing). Kankuro wasn't exactly carrying her, for she has refused to be carried in an extremely violent manner, and they had to settle on Temari putting her right arm over her brother's shoulder and putting some of the weight on that arm, so that she didn't find it as hard to move.

They knew that they have already crossed the line between the Fire country and the Wind country, but had yet to leave this seemingly never-ending forest and find _someone _to help them; stumbling across a small village would be perfect: it was unlikely any of them would question the three young kids, and would only call a doctor to treat Temari's wounds. Then… well, neither of them knew what will happen afterwards.

Eventually, they had to take a break, as there wasn't anyone who told them to get up and move – not anymore. They were lucky enough to see a small pond and Kankuro helped his sister to sit down nearby, though she was constantly growling that it's 'unnecessary' and that he shouldn't treat her like a 'fragile doll'. Well, it was _Temari, _after all. Kankuro proceeded to take care of the blood on her top and took off the piece of his own clothes that was used as a bandage; he then soaked it in water, getting rid of sweat and trying to remove at least a bit of blood from it – it turned out to be completely fruitless. He passed the damp clothes to her and allowed her to wash off the dried blood from her shoulder.

From the corner of his eyes, he could see his younger brother's trembling and it made him freeze. It was rather warm outside, besides Gaara could always use his sand to make himself warm, and there was only one reason why he was shaking.

Oh.

Dammit.

Kankuro darted towards Temari and hurriedly wiped off the blood and sweat off her shoulder, washed the clothes once again and secured the bandage around her shoulder, completely ignoring his sister's annoyed 'oi' and 'don't be so harsh', along with 'give it back'. But if he was right, and Gaara – or, rather, he _and _the demon within him – was trying to hold himself back and stopping himself from killing his sister, they were screwed. For the last hour or so of their travel, Gaara remained more or less calm, as he managed to kill that bastard and his sand absorbed most of his blood, much to Kankuro's disgust. Now, however, it seemed that that blood wasn't enough, and it only served as a trigger, waking up Gaara's thirst for blood.

When Kankuro looked over at his brother once again, there was no denying it, for Gaara was clutching onto his head and if Kankuro wasn't as observant, he could have thought that his brother's fingers were scraping his head and thus created bruises. His light-blue irises contracted and some of the capillaries in his eyes decided to burst, making the look on his face even more haunting. Gaara clenched his jaw, but some strangled moans and groans still left his mouth.

By the time he raised his head and looked at his siblings, Temari and Kankuro were already on their feet, running away as fast as they could. Temari was trying to reason with him by shouting 'don't, Gaara!' and 'you don't want this, you really don't want to kill us', but it was pointless. Gaara rose to his feet as slowly as possible and looked at his 'victims' that were currently running away. The _demon _whispered to him that he can use sand to catch them, but what fun would that be, Gaara thought to himself. No, he enjoyed the chase…

Some deeper part of him told him that he shouldn't do it, that they were family and there was no chance in hell he would feel nothing when he comes down from his high, but he thought of right here and right now, his nostrils widening and his jaw finally relaxing. Gaara took a few deliberate breaths, his gaze shifting to the small drops of Temari's blood that were splattered across the stone nearby.

But then again, there wasn't much he could do. He could deny his lust for blood all he wanted, but he couldn't trick Shukaku – the demon knew everything about him and kept urging him to attack, his sickeningly sweet voice filling Gaara's head and making the latter one bite on his lower lip.

_But… if it's just a little… both of them will still survive, right? I couldn't control myself with __**him **__but only because he meant harm. I will… try and hold myself back… I won't kill them… I won't… kill… th-_

Gaara didn't notice the moment the majority of his weight was put on his tiptoes and he began moving, but at some point he blinked and realised that he was running after his own siblings and had little to no control over his body. He was acutely aware of how physically weak he was, yet for some reason his body managed to move at an unfathomable speed, each step getting him closer and closer to his prey.

Yes, that's what they were. His prey. And he was the ultimate hunter.

It wasn't long before he reached out his hand in order to grab Temari by her wounded shoulder and violently pull her back, but Kankuro decided to take a leap and risk his own life by throwing himself in front of her. It was fruitless, however, seeing as Gaara's sand quickly casted him to the side and its owner only had to give Kankuro a single glance to make it clear that if he does it again, he will be dead in an instant.

Gaara slowly turned his head to Temari and they stood in front of each other, both unmoving – well, as unmoving as they could be, because both of them just couldn't stop their shaking. Temari kept shivering like crazy – she was scared, she was alone and the pain in her shoulder just couldn't _seize – _while her brother's body was trembling because his level of excitement reached the level of no return. She doubted he even controlled his own body anymore, or if he even understood what he was currently doing, because his light-blue irises – the ones she always appreciated when they were babies – contracted and she could barely see them.

Instead of using his sand, Gaara decided to attack her with his bare hands, and it was a big mistake on his part. Sure, her shoulder was burning like hell and she felt like fainting any second now, but her hazy mind could still recall the few self-defence lessons she has taken when she and Kankuro found out about how dangerous their younger brother is.

She allowed him to tackle her to the ground because she simply couldn't have the upper hand if they continued standing, but that was as far as it went. Without a further ado, she whispered a quick 'sorry' and rose her hands to his eyes, pushing them inside his skull. Her attack was met with a few angry grunts, but Gaara still refused to use his sand and forced it to stay off. All the better for her.

Temari couldn't help wincing at the pain in her wrists when Gaara took a hold of them. Perhaps it was because no one has ever bothered to teach him some of the basic defense techniques, but instead of pushing her hands away, he was simply holding onto them and squeezed them as hard as he could. She could only huff at this pathetic action – it would take more than his flimsy hands to break her wrists, so she continued pushing her thumbs into his eyes. His moans and groans became more frequent, and it wasn't long before he was wailing and shaking.

Finally, there was a thin stream of blood that ran out of the corner of his left eye and began trickling down his cheek. Temari crooked a smirk: this only proved her teacher's theory that it wasn't hard to push opponent's eyes inside his head, and all she needed was precision and determination. Oh, and a bit of adrenaline in her blood; she could whole-heartedly say that she had plenty of that in her body right now.

Sadly, her triumph didn't last for long, because this small trickle of blood triggered him brain to turn the fuck up and he allowed his sand to do his job for him.

Within moments, what seemed like a close victory turned into a complete disaster, as Temari was pinned to the ground, Gaara's sand holding her arms and legs in place. It didn't prevent her from kicking and screaming, though, thanks to the high level adrenaline in her body, but when she _did _calm down, it was the most terrifying experience ever.

She looked up at her brother, her eyes wide and her breathing shallow due to her recent screaming, and he bared his teeth at her. This crazy, absolutely mad smile made her realise that, no, Kankuro wasn't going to save her in time, and that, yes, Gaara completely lost his mind and gave it to that _demon _inside him.

xxxx

A/N: Cliffhangerrrr… *whispers from 2k14* I crave that mineral (no, Gaara, stop craving that mineral, blood is bad for your stomach)

OMG I have such an amazing scene in my head (must include, must include!) But nooo I'm too early into this story to put it here *sighs* maybe in, like, twenty chapters. Hahahah. Haha. Ha. *lies on the floor and sighs again* The struggles of writing fanfiction, man. Btw, the bit about eyes is purely theoretical on my part – I just remember talking to my dad about it (yeah I have no idea how _this _came up), but he assured me that 'squishing' eyes isn't actually that difficult and if you are ever attacked and there isn't much you can do, go for it. It will leave the attacker defenceless, if you aim riiiight inside the bastard's head.

I _know _that this fic feels slow, but I am writing it in such manner for a reason – yeah, I definitely plan to make it long, though I don't know just _how _long. This chapter was inspired by HP (Harry & others picking up their brooms during their first Quiddich training=Naruto picking up his books) and, quite obviously, Avatar (controlling all 4 elements, but as Shinigami said, he would be able to control freaking _nature _in future so… there is that) Also, my Gaara is like 10 months younger than Kankuro, so he's almost 6, Kankuro is 6 2/3 and Temari is 7 1/2. Why? I find it more convenient; besides, with the power of fanfiction, I wanted to make him older than Naruto.

Anyhow, reviews are always appreciated and I will see ya with a new chapter… whenever it's ready lol


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